#anyway. prettiest elf in the world ? and for what | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

that-angry-noldo · 2 years

Text

When Stars are Close (The Home is Far Away)

[my take on a StarWars!Finrod, inspired by @arafinweanappreciation post]

The Holocron activates with a single touch. It's Force signature is hesistant, but it's longing and curious. A person appears; their gender is hard to tell, but under further inspection it's possible to conclude that he's a male from unknown species, similar to humans. He has pointy ears, his expression is frowning.

So... I just. Start talking. Right. That's it?

He exhales.

It's weird. Guys, I could have simply wrote a book. Instead I'm staring at my own self. But blue. Like - like a mirror.

So- um. The council told me to just start talking. It's... supposed to help me? Help them. Understand me.

So, uh. Name's Finrod. Or Nom. Finrod Findarato Artafinde Ingoldo Nom Felagund, from the Third House of Noldor. Uh- king of Nargothrond, if we're going with titles. Or- wait, am I king if I kind of un-kinged myself? That's- that's a story for another day, I suppose.

Uh, oh, right, that doesn't really matter because it's not like there's another Nargothrond or something. Sorry for, um, wasting your time on that nonsense. Right, so I'm an Elda. Or Elf. As long as I know, this galaxy doesn't... have... any? Oh Eru, it's really weird, saying "this galaxy", isn't it. Yeah, right, to the point.

I'm... kind of... not from here.

The place i'm from is... wait, how you'd call it? Underdeveloped? Man, that's rude. We're pretty developed. The only reason we're not building skie- skyscrapers or space... ships is because we mind our business inside of Arda. So yeah, we don't have tech... nology... man, Feanor would have so much fun with this words... But like, we're good. Uh, and I'm pretty sure our Arda is flat. Shut. It is. I literally had no idea what horizon means until I came here. Man, round planets are so weird?

Anyways, to how I came here.

I, um... died.

There's a pause.

So... yeah, sorry, it's not the prettiest memory I have. But, like, it's fine. Dying. In Arda. If you're an elf. We, just kind of, ressurect. I had a friend who fell of the horse and broke his neck and died. Came back in like, ten days. I'm- I'm pretty sure he had a good time? Namo gave him cookies. My theory is that since he was a child, he didn't have a sorrow to heal from. Just general confusion.

Finrod frowns.

Don't... don't think he had the same luck the second time, though. Since... kinslaying and doom and all that... stuff.

So- yeah, technically speaking. I should be dead. Even though my elven nature allows me to ressurect. I- my kin- Noldor- we- uh- oh Eru-

Man, it's complicated. To simplify, the Big Bad in my world stole three gems my uncle was really... obsessed with, killed the source of light in the world, killed my grandpa and. Ran. Then my uncle - half-uncle - kind of went mad and... um... stole ships. Killing their owners first. Which was... a big deal since we didn't have wars back then. Plus, the owners were my relatives. So, uh, yes, he was preparing to sail in them but then the god of doom appeared and said that we're doomed, pun intended. Basically, anyone who goes with him will experience sorrow and pain and death. And won't ressurect. He sailed either way, but there wasn't enough ships so we were waiting on the shore but then boom. He burned them. Oh man, you don't really need such details, do you?

Anyways, onto the next point? The Jedi say I'm open to Force. Force being magic. Oh come on, Mace, it flows in everything that's alive. That's basically our Great Song. Back in Arda you can master it, if you happen to be an Elf or a Dwarf. It... we use it when forging or smithing or singing or speaking. We have... spells? I guess? It takes time to master, but it's not like elves suffer from the lack of it, really. (Chuckles.) Um... we don't divide it into dark or light side, though.

You see, using the Dark side... uh. Our analogy is the Dissonance. It's a part of the Great Song, though; when creating the World - Arda - Ea - the Big Bad - oh my, I'm calling Moringotto "the Big Bad" next time I see him - the Big Bad decided to create its own Song, so that's where all the evil stuff originates from.

Yeah, we don't divide magic into "Light" and "Dark" because we don't use Dissonance. But, like... if we're going with Jedi teachings, there's a Dark inside our Light.

Yep. (Smiles. The smile is nothing but friendly.) Uh, for example, the Songs of Power. It's... it's heavily based on emotions and manipulating. Of course, there's more to it, don't worry! But-

When I was singing-

Man, I- I really had to go into that, didn't I.

Anyways, the Song is more to that: you can make people warm with it; you can heal; you can charm people; but... when it comes to the Battle of Wills- the Battle of the Songs-

There's very little holding you. Every emotion is a spare bit of Power. Every memory is a source of the Song. It's... You have to weave your Song carefully, though.

I... I didn't.

Cost me greatly, didn't it. (Shrugs.) I... built it on the wrong thing.

But, like... I'm pretty sure I culd've been considered a Dark user in that moment. Or no! (Laughs.) If somebody saw me, I'd be appearing as a beacon of light compared to the thing- power- person I was fighting.

Sauron's kind of a stinky guy. (Laughs louder.) He would probably be considered a Sith. A Dark Lord, even.

Um- is a person still considered Jedi or Sith if they were basically the Power of the World? Oh, you don't have those? Um. Pretty sure he's a Dark Lord, then.

Pause. Then, under his breath:

The Dark Lord sounds cool, though. I wanna be a Dark Lord.

Oh my- I was joking. I was literally killed by the man, I want nothing but to kill him in return.

Oh- that's a bad thing? Op, yep, revenge, sorry, just slipped. Still wanna kill him, but whatever. A bunch of dudes in the robes who are also two millenias yonger then me won't let me. Sure, sure, let the kids play adults.

Oh my God, Mace, I am joking. But you know what, let me get a Dark Lord to kill you so I can talk to you in the afterlife.

Brothers and sisters in Song, don't speak to me of revenge if you didn't get yourself killed. I'm proclaiming it a touchy subject. I'll get all sad and upset if you try to talk me out of it.

Oh, yeah! Forgot to mention, I'm immortal, if another Dark Lord doesn't decide that I'm a delicious breakfast for his werewolves.

Um- guys. It's alright. Traumatic experience, but I'm alive, am I not? Yoda, you tell them.

Oh- Yoda, for Morgoth's sake. It's fine. I killed that werewolf, too. It's not like it's eaten me whole, I was exaggerating. That was a pretty badass moment, actually! I kind of broke my chains and saved my friend and-

... oh. Now I'm sad and stuff. I have no idea if I saved him or if I just gave him a few hours of spare time.

Another reason to figure out how to get me back faster, right?..

The next recording starts with Finrod being silent for a minute. Then, he takes a sharp breath. He was crying.

I- I miss them.

There's... Council isn't listening on this one, but they said I can use it, so-

I miss them so much it hurts.

I- I miss Father. Atya. He... he was smart. Wise. I- I miss him, gods, why do I miss him so damn much- and... mother, my dear mother, oh-

He stops. A silenced cries can be heard.

I- I had two brothers. They... they died, they... burned to crisps- I- I identified Aegnor's body because Andreth was layng beside him, she... didn't... didn't burn all the way- and Angrod- he- he had a sword in his chest and- his hair- there was only face left- oh- I- I wasn't in time- I-

A pause.

I... still have Artanis and Orodreth- or- had. Oh, I miss them. I want. I want to see them. I want to say Orodreth that he'll manage. Want to bicker with Artanis one more time. Oh, Eru- gods- Force- am I asking for too much?!

I... I wonder. I wonder if he's alive. If Beren's alive. If my death didn't go in vain. It-

Edrahil. Gods, I miss you, Edrahil, please- Force, if you want to syphon someone else- let it be him, please, I need- he always-

And Amarie, my Amarie, my gold, my lady, my-

Why are attachments considered bad?

Does attachment equal love?

I- I love them. I love them.

I love them, I love them, I love them-

Same words continue in broken whispers. Eventually, the recording dies out.

I love them.

I don't know why, but it matters.

They call me, Yoda.

Finrod's face looks as if it's carved from stone.

Every day.

It starts with Father. He calls me. He wants me back.

Then there's Artanis.

And Turgon.

They all call me.

Yoda, If I can hear them, it means there's a way out.

The new recording starts. Finrod is looking past the frame.

They are magnificent. Gods - Varda, they are magnificent.

I have never seen stars this close.

Oh... It's like- they're liquid. Oh, I should've guessed. Liquid! Oh, they're wonderful. Oh my-

Hah, right, Qui, we elves are obsessed with stars, it's just-

Have I ever told you of the Awakening?

It's a beautiful story. I heard it from Grandfather. He was one of the Awaken.

When we first opened our eyes, Qui, the first thing we've seen were stars.

I hear them.

They are close.

In every star. In every string of the Melody.

They call me, and their calls are like a song.

Yes, Qui, I am sentimental. I would like to see you in my shoes.

I am going home.

I swore I'll be back, Qui.

And when I swear, I don't do it lightly.

Thank you.

For stars.

For Force.

I am going home, Qui.

I am going home.

Holocron holds no more recordings.

As long as Qui-Gon knows, Finrod found those who were calling for him.

8 notes · View notes

andsotheuniverseended · 1 year

Note

ok you know i love my grumpy girls but snow's class combo sounds FASCINATING so i have to know more :D :D 8 - 10, 12, 20, 28, 60 and 69!

Snow is one of the wildest characters I've ever made, she's mechanically a winter eladrin but is flavor-wise human but Extra. and also she is literally Snow White but based very specifically off that Kristen Stewart movie ANYWAY

8) what songs remind you of them? if there are specific lyrics or movements, list ‘em!

i Love making playlists for my characters so i have been very slowly working on hers but there's only a couple right now. Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles for the upbeat vibes because she is generally a cheerful girl

and Still by Noah Kahan for the fact that her life has basically been miserable for a hella long time (the past coming back with the light in the morning/look down on myself like a patient in surgery/and i used to watch my mother move/like god was in the room)

9) when in their life were they most scared?

okay SO about a hundred years ago, Snow's brand new step-mom killed their dad and took over the kingdom and killed and imprisoned everyone in it, and threw Snow into a cell, and there was a part of that where she was running and nearly at the gate and then got snatched up and dragged back into the castle and i think that was probably the most acutely terrified she's ever been

10) what inspired this character's creation?

lmao okay SO my friend and i watched that 2011 red riding hood movie with amanda seyfried and he went "i could make a dnd character outta this" and then like changed up the lore a ton and made Red, who's family is Super Cursed. and then we watched the snow white and the huntsman movie with kristen stewart bc for some reason in my head i've literally always confused those two for like being in the same universe? or something?

anyways we watched it and i went "hey, i could make a dnd character outta this!" and actually Snow's backstory is fairly accurate to the movie with the minor changes of she is technically an elf now so she was imprisoned for a hundred years, and also her blood can break curses (but it might kill her)

and then we looked at each other and went "these two would be fun in a campaign together"

12) how have they altered their body? piercings, tattoos, biohacks, or other modifications—anything. why (or why not) did they (or someone else) make those changes?

Snow hasn't had the opportunity to do anything to her body and also has a very... warped sense of her physical self? because she is magically/divinely mandated as Fairest Of Them All (and her beauty is literally magical hence the sorcerer levels) so she's just always been treated that way, as the Prettiest Thing Ever and that has really divorced her sense of self from her body. so i don't think she's even really thought about the fact that she could technically do any of those things? it hasn't crossed her mind, really. i DO think further down the line when she gets a little more grounded in her body she would definitely do something though. piercings for sure, maybe tattoos??

20) what attracts them to someone—platonically and/or romantically, anything counts.

Snow had a childhood love (dead now RIP) and she loved him because of his sense of adventure and his honor and his dedication to things, and his laugh

a hundred years later she met his granddaughter (in her 40s with a kid i think) and liked her because of her love for her kid and her practicality, and her sense of justice and responsibility to take care of others

generally Snow likes people who are devoted to important things, who have a strong will, who care deeply, and who fight- not just for the world but also for themselves.

28) do they collect anything?

Snow is not quite conscious of it yet but i as her player have made the decision that she's gonna collect items from each adventure we go on (so far it's a spider fang and an eternally frozen leaf). its one of those things where again she never had the chance to but once she realizes she CAN she'll definitely want to.

60) what do they have faith in? what keeps them believing?

i don't know how to word what i wanna say here but like the one thing that has kept Snow going for all this time is that she very much does Not Want To Die. she wants to live. so i think her faith is in herself and also the future, the idea that there are things to live for once she finds them. there's also her faith in her kingdom and her people, both of which she needs to rescue from the evil queen. so its her own stubbornness that keeps her believing that there IS a way to do it without sacrificing herself

69) what's one secret they don't want getting out?

Snow is on the run so most things about herself she keeps close to the chest so that the queen won't hear about her and come running

but the number one actual thing that she will need to be pushed into THE most desperate of corners to admit is that her blood can break curses. because its incredibly powerful but also incredibly dangerous and could kill her depending on the curse, and its not something she's willing to risk so people knowing about it would just be dangerous

#Snow #dnd #Universe Answers #floralprintshark #she is two levels divine soul sorcerer bc she was born Weird and Magically Beautiful #and one level celestial warlock bc the evil queen is also Magically Beautiful and they kind of like.#accidentally??? linked up with each other's magic. and Snow is not aware of this fact #like she does not know that she has a warlock level/that it comes from the queen #sorry wow i talked SO much i just. love her a lot she's literally insane #i do truly want her to go through a whole Appearance Journey. maybe even a lil bit of a gender one #who knows who knows

2 notes · View notes

khneltea · 2 years

Text

daminette villainess au pt.1

@illiteratefucks @mgi-events

prompts: fantasy + last chance

marinette didn't expect to be transported to another world after falling asleep while playing the new otome game tiktok blew up about

she didn't remember anything about it.

at. all.

in her defence, she was playing it for the gacha rolls for dress up and because the clothing + graphics were really pretty

no it was not because one of the sub male leads had the prettiest green eyes she'd ever seen shut up

and she reincarnated as the villainness 'Marie', modeled after Marie Antoinette

basically, a brat with a ridiculously complicated updo who ate sweets all day long and threw frivolous parties to try and get the crown prince, Adrian

but she reincarnated when 'Marie' was 14, meaning she still hadn't travelled from the countryside (where her mother and 'father' raised her) AND BEFORE SHE WAS TAKEN TO THE CITY TO BE WITH HER BIOLOGICAL FATHER

aww her parents are bakers

wait omg this is why Marie was obsessed with sweets

it was because she missed her parents

"GAME CREATORS, WHY DID YOU ROB THIS SWEET GIRL OF HER PRECIOUS AND HEARTBREAKING BACKSTORY"

anyways

she misses her parents in the real world

and these new game parents 'Edward (everyone called him Ted)' and 'Celine' were so much like her actual parents

OH WHOOPS BIO DAD IS AN ASSHOLE AND IS LIKE "I'M GONNA KILL YOU TWO IF YOU DON'T GIVE UP MY DAUGHTER TO ME"

fuck you biodad

so Marinette goes to the house to save her parents cus she doesn't want them dying

surprise surprise, bio dad (who is a count) only wants her there so she can get a 'proper' lady's education and become a tool for marriage

"you might be a bastard, but you still have some uses."

marinette is furious

she sneaks out of the house at night

wears a ridiculously red hat because apparently that's what is in fashion according to her half-sister Dahlia

who suspiciously looked like the main heroine 'Lia' from the promotional content

so the only clothing she had was from her half-sister

who begged their father not to have to give up her clothes

but then in front of the servants, she started to cry on the spot about Marinette stealing her clothes

"but *sniff* it's ok because *sniff sniff* she needs them more."

servants don't like marinette now

SO ANYWAYS SHE'S SNEAKING OUT SO SHE CAN FRICKING BREATH AND GET SOME CLOTHES THAT AREN'T THE UGLY POOFY STUFF LIE-A GAVE HER

but then she gets stopped cus someone thought she would be easy to rob

"give up the money, or we'll kill you"

and the award for most original line goes to-

she scoffs at them and brushes past them

the guy pulls out a knife and tries to stab her with it

oh look, gravity works on her as she "trips", sweeping her flailing legs under his own and making him fall backwards as she stumbles forwards

she hears thumps behind her and whirls around to see a band of...teenagers?

they all looked like they came out of a fantasy novel

elf ears, daggers and bows and arrows, grey and black tunics, a few blue fabrics peeking out of the black cloaks they all wore, pink hair, purple hair, metal enhancements

AND DID ONE OF THEM HAVE GREEN SKIN?

the teenagers bring out their weapons

marinette is so done with this and she's about to bring out her makeshift sharp-rock-tied-to-a-scarf

when the teenagers help her

wham bam kapow

done

the green one spoke up first

"are you ok there, sweet stuff?" *gets slapped in the head*

marinette blushes

the purple-haired girl speaks

"sorry about him, he's always flirting with everyone"

"it's ok. thank you so much for helping"

the one who is obviously the leader of the group stepped up and oh my god

his outfit was ridiculous

who wore a yellow tunic with red pants and a green cloak??? who did that????

she broke out of her thoughts as he pulled back his hood and she saw his eyes past his green cloth mask

was it a mask if it was a piece of cloth tied blindfold style with slits for him to see through?

but back to the topic

"What are you doing here, alone, where you could possibly be robbed?"

oh my god its him its him

The teenage boy spoke up again, bite in his voice

oh my god it is, it really is— HOLY SHIT HE JUST THREW A DAGGER RIGHT BY MY EAR I COULD HEAR IT WHOOSH

"This is going to be your last chance to tell me. Why are you here, wearing that ostentatious, ugly hat?"

and, despite being faced with the threat of being harmed, she snorted

"Like I'd take fashion advice from you, Robin Hood."

yes, it was the most famous sub-male lead, the one with the deepest, most gorgeous green eyes to exist in this universe and her own, Robin.

#villainess au #HEY I WROTE IT DOWN #FINALLY #HELLO #daminette #damianxmarinette #maribat #OMG BUT YES I LOVE VILLAINESS MANGA + AU #romance #will write a part two #prompt: fantasy #prompt: last chance #mgicivilwar2022

153 notes · View notes

galadhremmin · 2 years

Note

Tbh the whole most beautiful thing trips me. I can accept Fëanor being the most beautiful of the men, and Luthien of the women, but what about Finrod. Isn't he also meant to be the most beautiful male elf? Galadriel is called the most beautiful woman of the house of Finwë, and sometimes of the Noldor, but is she more or less pretty than Arwen, who looks like a carbon copy of Luthien. What about all the other elves meant to be super pretty (Maedhros, Celegorm, Dior etc).

Side note, this is why staggering the elves ages in casting annoys me. They should all be in the ephemeral, sexy age range of late twenties/early thirties, and I frankly think it is better and more in line with the subtly eldritch feel of the elves, if parents look the same age as their children.

agreed. Choosing actors who appear visibly aged does take away from the 'otherness' of elves, the lack of visible aging between different generations is part of what makes them look visually off to us-- if the actors can actually act. The age people take you for is really based more on behaviour than looks alone. Some behaviours just 'seem' young/immature to others-- high energy levels and impulsivity, for example.

Good actors should probably be able to portray generational differences between elves through behaviour. But...oh well.

Okay anon, what we need is some sort of published Silm beauty ranking... I got started with some quotes:

....

1. So far I got Finarfin "fairest and most wise of heart" of Finwe’s children-- could this be about his personality? He seems like he'd try to be fair to people-- he's also literally the fairest. As in, he's the one blond. So I'm willing to discount the beauty meaning of fair-- if only because anyway he’s defeated by

2. - his own son; "King Finrod Felagund, fairest and most beloved of the house of Finwë" .... well. Maybe it's fair in the blond sense again, or he's talking about being fair to people? Both of these are published Silm btw. We also get 'Finrod Finarfin’s son, fairest of all the princes of the Elves,' -- so maybe he's just... the blondest and prettiest prince of his generation

3. Dior 'now he appeared as the fairest of all the children of the world' now here it is clearly talking about appearance, BUT this is notably only after he starts wearing Nauglamir. I'm disqualifying him. I bet I'd level up if I wore a silmaril on nauglamir too.

4. Galadriel 'fairest of all the Elves that remained in Middle-earth.' (in third age) OOF to all other elves; though Arwen and Elrond are peredhel and so not involved in this comparison. Also 'Galadriel, most beautiful of all the house of Finwë' here we get the word beautiful, rather than fair; less ambiguous. Though it conflicts directly with.

5. For Fëanor was made the mightiest in all parts of body and mind, in valour, in endurance, in beauty

6 and Luthien is of course called the most beautiful of all living things.

7. Maedhros is "of beautiful bodily form" with unusual hair, and tall, but not 'the most __' anything afaik

8. Celegorm is fair but not fairest. Also given his old english name I'm going to go with it just referring to his haircolour.

My conclusion so far is - I'm willing to go with 'fairest' being a description of personality for Finrod and Finarfin because it's both in the context of 'fair and wise' 'fair and beloved.'

Could it perhaps be that beauty is perhaps... subjective in the end? no! Surely this is propaganda (your pick which one/all of them) ;)

- Galadriel is definitely the hottest woman out of the Finweans and no. 1 Hot Elf of any gender once prettier people leave/die

- Fëanor is the hottest man, doesn't need Silmaril + Nauglamir enhancement. But who's more beautiful, Fëanor or Galadriel?! This is inconsistent... Feanor is just called the most beautiful in general anyway, not of the house of Finwe-- but if Galadriel is already the most beautiful of the house of-- agh!

#and yet again. we're back to to galadriel and feanor #the biggest beef of the noldor after feanor and fingolfin #who is the prettiest of them all!!#well anyway galadriel is the prettiest elf in the 3rd age because she literally outlasts all competition. everyone else is DEAD #who was the prettiest in the YoT though??? a Mystery

29 notes · View notes

finrad · 3 years

Text

Wish I Were Him - Galadriel x Reader

I based this fanfic off of my interpretation of the song Heather because why not. Also this took me so long to write.

Warnings: None

0o0o0

It was a quiet winter night that night. Stars shone softly in the sky as you sat next to the lovely Lady Galadriel with one of her dresses on. You had been really into her for the longest time. But she wasn't aware of this. If only you could tell her how you feel.

"Do you like the dress I gave you?" Galadriel asked, looking at the outfit you were wearing. It looked very nice on you, in your opinion.

"I do!" you answered. "Thank you for letting me wear this."

"There is no need to thank me. You can keep it if you wish. It looks much better on you than on me." Galadriel smiled at you. Her smile was very nice to you. Everything about her was nice to you. She is a very pretty woman, on the inside and the outside.

For the rest of the night, you and Galadriel spoke quietly under the moonlight about the things that interested you. You felt so close to her, and that night would stick to your mind for a very long time.

It had been around a year since that night. You still had the dress in your closet, as it still fit you and it meant so much to you. The dress was still very clean and had some glitter in it. Not much has changed in your life since that day.

Well, not much except for the fact that you suspect that Galadriel had fallen for a man. Celeborn. He was just a perfect guy. He was polite, charming, and quite handsome. There was no way that you could ever compete with him.

So, for now, you had to deal with the fact that Galadriel, the woman you love, will never fall for you. It was so obvious that she liked Celeborn. Painfully obvious. The way she looked at him made it so clear. Galadriel would try to find excuses to be near him.

He's got her mesmerized.

And that really hurt you. The two of you had been friends for a long time. You have been in love with Galadriel for so long as well. It was so unfair. Why did he have to come in? There was no reason to hate him. He was so generous and treated everyone well, but every time you saw him, you would feel a little bit of rage.

What you were feeling was jealousy. There's no way that it is anything else. You wished that you were him. So that she could be in love with you. It's so hard to deal with all of these emotions that flooded in. The heartbreak and envy was horrible.

One night, you went searching for Galadriel and found her with Celeborn. She was holding his hand and smiling with him. You felt something like a stab to your heart when you saw that. They were clearly into each other. It was a harsh truth that you understood.

She would never even want to be with you. Celeborn is much nicer than you are. And she'll only ever see you as a good friend. Especially now that she fell for Celeborn.

Tonight, you laid facedown on your couch while sobbing. So many horrible thoughts crawled through your mind. You could never be Celeborn. He was an angel, and was so... perfect. And you were almost the opposite of that.

You cried and cried for nearly the whole night. It was terrible to cry over a girl, but you were doing it anyways. You really couldn't help but cry that night. Galadriel was quite possibly the love of your life, and seeing her fall in love with another was crushing.

Hopefully nobody was hearing you sob. It might be a little embarrassing to explain to somebody why you were feeling this way. You would most likely get laughed at or constantly teased. So, for now, you are going to hide all of your emotions inside.

This was a horrible idea. But you had no other choice. There's no way that you are gonna risk getting embarrassed. You would be constantly scared of people telling Galadriel how you felt. And she was not the person that you wanted to tell about this. Absolutely not.

The very next morning, you fixed yourself up and decided to get dressed. You opened up your closet and took a look at all of the clothes that you owned. You then saw the dress. The one that was given to you by Galadriel.

It gave you memories to that cold winter night. That night where you were nearly certain that she was in love with you. What a terrible assumption. Just because she gave you one of her dresses does not mean that she loves you like that. It was more of a friendly gesture.

You sighed and grabbed the dress and took it out of the closet. Maybe you should put it on today. It looks beautiful and you really liked it. So you decided to do it. Despite the fact that it once belonged to the woman that you love, but she doesn't love you back.

The way it shone in the daylight reminded you of the way Galadriel's bright hair shone in the sunlight and in the moonlight. Her hair was quite beautiful. And so was the hair of many elves, but hers is the prettiest to you. It is claimed that many have asked for just one strand of her gorgeous hair. You never have, despite the fact that you liked her so much. Though it wasn't because you were afraid to, it was because you found it a little weird to beg for a strand of someone's hair.

However, you did take one of these tiny gems that belongs to and Galadriel. She already knows that you have it, and doesn't mind that you took it in the first place. It was just a little gem after all.

After dressing up, you left your room with a frown. You felt sad now that you reminded yourself about how much you like Galadriel, which reminded you how painful it is to know that she doesn't like you back.

Eventually, you ran into the fair lady, and she quickly noticed that you were wearing her old dress. She smiled and looked at the dress.

"Oh, you're wearing the dress I gave you." she told you. You nodded softly. "I gave it to you about one year ago. And you still look beautiful in that dress." That statement made you blush.

"Thank you." you replied. "I really like this dress."

Galadriel looked down to the floor and then back up at you. "Well, I must get going, I have something very important to tell Celeborn." she told you, before quickly walking away.

Your heart sank. She was going to tell him that she loves him, you just know it. And if Celeborn also loves Galadriel, there will be a worse pain in your heart. You would also have a much more severe feeling of jealousy.

A while after Galadriel had walked away from you, you waited anxiously for her to finish speaking to Celeborn. Soon, Galadriel would come to your door and tell you some news that you would not really like.

Finally, after about a couple of hours, you heard a knock on your door. Your stomach tied into a knot as you went to answer the door. It was definitely Galadriel. You would be very surprised if the first thing she told you was that she and Celeborn are now together. It was very obvious that they were very into each other.

You opened the door, and there she was. Oh goodness, this was not going to be good.

"Good evening." Galadriel began. "I talked to Celeborn, and I would like to take you outside to, um, tell you something."

You gulped, and then nodded. Galadriel then took your hand and lead you outside. The sun was setting and the air was getting cooler. You were glad to be wearing a dress with long sleeves, because it you weren't, you'd be freezing.

At last, Galadriel had found a nice spot for you two to sit on. You sat down and realized that where you two were was familiar to you. Very familiar. And then it hit you.

This was the spot where you and Galadriel sat together about a year ago. The day that she gave you her dress. So many memories flooded into your head.

"So, what are you going to tell me?" you asked.

"Well, I came here to tell you that you mean the entire world to me." Galadriel answered. "You really do. And you have for a while. I've considered you my dearest friend for a long time, and I want to consider you more than just that."

"What do you mean?"

"I love you. I want to be yours. You melt me, as if I were a candle and you were a flame." Galadriel began. Her words made your eyes watery, but not from sadness. From joy. "To be completely honest, you have for so long. It's just that I couldn't tell you out of fear."

"I thought you loved Celeborn." you said. "The way you looked at him made it so obvious."

"I never truly did. He sort of did grab my attention at first, but I was never in love with him." Galadriel told you. "That was because I loved you."

The elf grabbed your hands and leaned in closer to you. Her cool breath was hitting your face. It was quite gentle.

"May I give you a kiss, my love? That is, if you love me back." Galadriel asked.

"Of course, because I love you, too." you answered.

The two of you then kissed gently. As you kissed, you felt so happy. It was incredible to now be kissing the lady that you had been in love with for ages. It really did.

#lotr #lord of the rings #lotr x reader #the silmarillion x reader #galadriel #lady galadriel #galadriel x reader #the silmarillion #fanfic #fanfiction #lotr fanfiction #tolkien #x reader

144 notes · View notes

ourloveisforthelovely · 3 years

Text

Princess Part 5

Harry Potter Marauders Era

Link to Part 4

Pairings: Regulus Black x Reader

Rating: E- smut

_______

Christmas came around a lot quicker than you expected. Returning back to Grimmauld Place you were thrilled with the thoughts of having Regulus all to yourself for some time. Walburga and Orion were busy planning their annual Christmas Eve gala that was hosted every year so that would leave Regulus and yourself some alone time. You silently thanked Orion for attempting to keep his wife from your meddling in the love affair going on between Regulus and yourself. The two of you were adults and didn’t need Walburga butting in or trying to keep sex from happening.

To your displeasure, however, Voldemort had other ideas. For the first week of the holiday Regulus was gone the whole time. Apparently, there was some mission that could not wait. That meant you were once again put on the back burner. This seeming abandonment you would have to put up with. There was no sense in trying to talk Regulus out of going. He had to. Whether you wanted him to or not, your lover had to work for the greater good. You would just have to deal without him for a bit and not complain. Walburga’s words of that’s what good wives do. They support their husbands...especially at a time like this. You will look pretty and provide him comfort when Regulus comes home rang in your head. It didn’t matter if you weren’t his wife “technically.” In Walbruga’s eyes, you were as good as Regulus’ wife.

Luckily, Walburga picked up on your sullen mood and swooped in to keep you occupied. She required you to help her with the Christmas gala and took you dress shopping (even though you had plenty of evening gowns) for a perfect party dress. As the witch as the dress shop hovered over you gathering measurements and deciding what tone would look best on you. Finally, the three of you decided on a form-fitting emerald green gown that pushed your breasts to new heights and a split that went nearly to your thigh. Walburga smiled from her seat.

“Come Easter holiday, we will be looking for a wedding dress.”

She was thrilled with your sweet smile. The seamstress looked up with a grin.

“Ah, getting married are you?”

You nodded, happily. Walburga normally didn’t let emotions other than wrath and anger show. Today, however, she smiled like a proud mother.

“She’s marrying my only son. Isn’t she a beauty?”

The seamstress nodded, eagerly.

“I thought she was your daughter, ma’am.”

Walburga stood and came to join you on the platform that you were standing on while the seamstress hemmed the bottom of the dress.

“She’s as good as. Y/n and my Regulus have been taken with each other since they were children. There is no one better for my son.”

The seamstress nodded with a smile.

“I saw your boy a few days ago, Mrs. Black. He is very handsome. These two will make lots of pretty babies.”

Walburga nodded, locking her gaze on you. The two of you made eye contact and your expectations as a woman and wife were clearly said without Walburga saying a word. She had made it clear that she wanted an heir but not anytime soon. You were thankful that she saw your views on wanting to wait until things with lord Voldemort slowed down. When he made the appropriate amount of progress and Regulus wasn’t out risking his life then you would have a baby.

“That is the hope.”

Walburga replied.

The Christmas gala came with no sign of Regulus coming home. You sat putting the finishing touches on your makeup before heading downstairs to the party. The last thing that you really wanted to do was go to this party without Regulus. Showing up without your boyfriend to a party where 98% of the invitees knew about your engagement was a bit tiresome. You didn’t feel like spending the evening saying polite thank yous to all of the people in your social circle wishing you well. It was rude and selfish, you knew this. All that you wanted was your lover.

Stepping into the room, your eyes immediately went to Evan and Emma. Your annoyance built a bit more. Emma got to have her fiance home. Before you could hide from your cousin, he spotted you and grabbed Emma’s arm to pull her over. Emma immediately smiled as her eyes met yours.

“Y/n!”

She said, cheerfully and pressed a kiss to your cheek.

“Hi, Emma. Evan when did you get home?”

Evan shrugged.

“Yesterday. Regulus should be back soon. There was a mission that one of the new worthless members of or cause messed up. Regulus had to go clean up the mess.”

You didn’t have to ask Evan what that meant. Regulus was out killing someone. You had told Regulus in the beginning that you didn’t want to know what he was doing when he went out. It didn’t matter how you felt about purebloods, half-bloods, or mudbloods. You didn’t want to hear about death. Since your own mother was killed years beforehand; you had always been sensitive to it.

“I see. I’m glad to see that you are alright.”

You wrapped your arms around Evan’s shoulder and kissed his cheek. If something had happened to Evan you would have been devastated. Evan smiled and returned the gesture. He looked between Emma and yourself with a pleased smile.

“Pureblood women are the prettiest. You two look simply lovely.”

Emma smiled and playfully smacked her fiance’s arm.

“You’re so talented at words.”

Evan shrugged, knowing that his fiance was right.

“I’m going to talk to Malfoy. I’ll leave you two together.”

When Evan walked away Emma turned her attention back to you. Your face had turned a bit more annoyed.

“What is it? You look furious.”

You scoffed.

“Lucius is back too? Everyone has their lovers back except for me.”

Emma’s motherly smiled returned as she reached out to fluff your hair.

“There now. Stop frowning. You’re going to get age lines too quickly. Y/n, you know what our men are doing is the right thing to do. We have to make sacrifices for the greater good.”

You wanted to scowl even harder at the comment on the greater good. As much as you wanted to, you couldn’t make a comment about how you were questioning “the greater good.” Was all of this even worth it?

Emma’s voice pulled you from your thoughts.

“You look lovely. It's good to see that the best of our society came to this gala. I was afraid that Melissa would be here.”

You rolled your eyes. The feeling of annoyance about Emma’s hatred of your other friend returned.

“You know that her family wouldn’t have been able to afford a new dress for her. She would have looked simply dreadful.”

Emma added. You took a sip of the drink that you had snatched off of a tray.

“She is in France with her grandparents anyway.”

Emma’s cold eyes narrowed.

“I don’t understand your fascination with that girl. We are practically royalty and she’s just...poor.”

You sighed.

“She’s nice, Emma. Maybe it's a good thing to network outside of our own social circles from time to time. There could be something useful that comes out of friendships with others.”

It was Emma’s turn to roll her own eyes.

“Sure, if my house elf needs a new pillowcase to wear. Regulus!”

You quickly turned the moment Regulus’ hand touched the small of your back. Without even thinking, you threw your arms around his shoulders.

“You’re home.”

You said, softly. Regulus chuckled and pulled you into a soft kiss. He would have kissed you more but Regulus knew his mother would have a cow if the two of you started snogging in the middle of a party.

“I’ve missed you.”

He replied as you slowly backed away.

“I missed you too.”

You whispered, looking him over. Thankfully, nothing looked out of order. Regulus appeared to be perfectly fine with no injuries. He stood dressed in a full black suit and tie that matched your dress.

Emma, meanwhile, touched your arm so you wouldn’t forget her presence.

“I’ll leave you two alone. I’m going to find Evan.”

“Bye, Emma.”

You said, softly as Regulus gave her a nod. He waited until she was out of earshot before speaking.

“What was going on? You looked ready to punch her.”

You rolled your eyes as Regulus slipped his arm around your waist. He wanted to keep you as close to him as possible and you weren't about to object.

“She’s such a selfish person sometimes.”

Regulus nodded, rolling his eyes. You were never more correct than you were with that sentence.

“Emma and Evan are perfect for each other.”

Your eyes fluttered up to Regulus’ face.

“I hear that we are perfect for each other too.”

Regulus leaned closer. Having you this close to him after the hellish week that he had was more than welcoming. Regulus had big his mother and father a quick hello before coming to find you. You were the one that he wanted to see more than anyone in the world.

“Oh, my darling, you have no idea. This dress...it's going to look even more wonderful on my floor.”

You ran a hand down Regulus’ chest earning a sigh from him.

“Why don’t we get out of here for a little bit?”

You asked, resisting the urge to let your hand go lower.

“That sounds nice.”

The two of you left the party without gaining much attention. Walburga and Orion were so busy talking to the Malfoys that they didn’t notice Regulus lightly shoving you from the room and up the stairs.

The moment his bedroom door was shut, Regulus had you against the wall. Soft timid kisses quickly turned hungry as he shoved his suit jacket off. He groaned as your hands reached up and tangled in his hair to deepen the kiss.

“Need you, now.”

Regulus moaned between kisses. The past week had been one of the most exhausting in his life! Coming to find you in a dress that practically showed your tits to the whole room made the jealous lover in him go into hyperdrive. Regulus yanked the soft silky fabric until it ripped. He gave one more hard pull until what was left of the dress hit the floor.

Now you stood before him in only a silky white thong and your emerald heels.

“Now that’s better.”

Regulus growled before going for the thong. You gave him an amused scowl as he tore it off of you too.

“I am running low on lingerie.”

You commented as his hands trailed over your breasts to cup them greedily. Regulus stood up straight and looked down at you with that displeased expression. So, this is the mood for the night. You thought as that dom eyebrow of his rose up.

“I can do whatever I want, Y/n. I can rip anything off of my fiance that I want. If you are that worried about lingerie, I can always buy you more.”

You smirked and said in almost a teasing tone.

“Yes, sir.”

Regulus was suddenly pressed against you so hard that you could barely breathe. His handsome face was looking down at you with an angry hungry expression. Regulus’ hand tilted your chin so you were looking at him fully.

“So you want to be a smart mouth, huh? Well, princess that’s just fine with me.”

“The silencing charm…”

You muttered. The last thing that you wanted was for anyone to hear what the two of you were about to do. Regulus shook his head.

“No, you want to be a sassy little brat then I’m going to make you scream like a whore.”

His voice was low. It was low and oozing with pent up sexual energy from the past week apart.

“Reggie, I don’t want people to hear…”

Regulus’ hand was over your mouth silencing any more of your sentence from coming out. He leaned down nuzzling his nose against yours.

“Don’t you Reggie me. Now I’m going to shut that smart mouth up.”

He quickly started loosening his tie and tossed it to the side before going for his dress shirt. You swallowed, watching hungrily as he unbuckled his belt before pulling you back into another kiss.

“Time to shut your smart mouth up.”

He took your hand and moved it to the bulge in his dress pants.

“You know what I want.”

Regulus added, his voice softening a bit. You eagerly nodded as he wrapped his hand around yours and led you to the velour loveseat near the fireplace. Regulus kicked his shoes off before easing his dress pants down his slender waist. You wanted to whine the moment that his erection came into view.

“On your knees.”

Regulus ordered as he sat down, spreading his legs enough for you to kneel between his knees like the sweet princess you were. He tossed his mess curls over his shoulder as you knelt before him.

“Kiss me first.”

He said before leaning down enough to kiss you. You put as much passion as you could into the kiss. Regulus was clearly caught off guard and let the inner dom in him get lost in your mouth. You pushed up enough to be pressed against his chest as the snogging continued. Regulus rocked his hips the moment his brain seemed to realize that his cock was trapped between your joined bodies.

Regulus was the one to break the kiss.

“Get to work, princess.”

You did as you were told but decided to tease him a big first. Kissing his full lips once more, you moved slowly down his body. Pressing soft butterfly kisses to his chin, neck, chest, and stomach before moving to his waiting erection. Your eyes flickered to the dark mark on his arm before batting up to his face. As much as you wanted to admit that you didn’t like his “job” the dark mark on his arm was a turn on. Seeing your prim and proper lover with a tattoo was enough to leave you wet and dripping.

“Don’t make tell you twice.”

Regulus snapped.

“Yes, darling.”

You cooed before seductively licking a path down his length. Regulus fought the urge to close his eyes as you took him into your mouth. You focused on trying to make him moan. If he was going to be a cheeky shit and not put a silencing charm on the room then you were going to make him moan so loud that his mother would hear him downstairs.

You smirked at the thought of Walburga down there minding her own business. She would be mortified the moment that she realized that her son wasn’t in any danger but instead was getting a blow job. The two of you would get the tongue lashing of a lifetime that even Orion wouldn’t be able to save you from.

“That’s a good girl.”

Regulus hissed, trying to resist the urge to move his hips. Your violet eyes fluttered open and met your lover’s face. Regulus was biting his lip as he stared at you with lust-filled eyes.

You pulled away enough for Regulus’ cock to leave your mouth with a “pop.” Regulus groaned and leaned his head back against the sofa as his hands dug into the material You leaned forward and kissed his inner thighs while keeping one hand on his cock to keep Regulus muttering beneath you.

Internally, you cursed the control that Regulus had on himself. You wanted nothing more than to have him moan a little louder. Hearing him say “fuck” and “good girl” was thrilling but you wanted to have him gasping.

“I know what you are trying to do and I should spank you for it.”

Regulus growled before reaching down and pulling you into his arms. His mouth was back on yours as he claimed his prize. You quickly reached up and twirled your fingers in the curls that had fallen into his face.

“I like it when you spank me.”

You said against his lips. Regulus chuckled. He had let his hard side go to simply enjoy being close to you.

“I will never hit you but I won’t hesitate to lay you over my lap and spanking you.”

You gigged against his mouth before gently pulling his bottom lip into your mouth. Regulus reached between your bodies to circle your clit with his index finger. You immediately bucked against his hand.

“Not yet, naughty girl.”

Regulus wrapped his arms around you enough to lift you bridal style. You hungrily kissed the exposed skin of his neck. Leaving lovebites for the world to see was your next goal. You didn’t give two shits if the two of you returned to school looking as if you had been attacked.

Regulus dropped you onto the bed interrupting your thoughts of love bites. You stared up at him as Regulus removed your heels. He gently kissed your ankles before spreading your legs. Regulus wanted nothing more than to shove in and make love to you roughly. You, however, didn’t deserve that. It had been nearly a week since your last lovemaking. He wanted to make you feel good. If you could put your legs together the next morning that would be even more pleasing.

“Reggie.”

You whined his name earning a smile from your lover. He reached down and cupped your face. His dom persona had dropped quickly and was replaced by the sweet boy that you had fallen in love with.

“Soon, darling.”

He took his place over you and kissed your lips, cheeks, and collar bone. You sighed happily as his mouth moved down to your breasts. Stormy eyes met yours as he bit at your nipple before gently sucking at your stinging bud. Your hands ran through his curls as Regulus moved away from your breasts to kiss and lick a path down your stomach.

“You’re so wet.”

Regulus stated as he gently pressed two fingers inside of you. You bucked your hips earning a low laugh from Regulus as he shoved you back down. His voice seemed to drop an octave as he lowered his mouth to your folds.

“Nothing tastes better than you, love. You’re the only girl that I could do this too.”

Regulus whispered before licking a path down your folds to tease at your clit. Your eyes snapped closed knowing that Regulus was about to play unfairly. His goal at the moment was to overstimulate you. Swallowing back a sigh, you made a mental note to be quiet. You couldn’t let the party guests hear you screaming from your soon to be husband’s touch.

“Reggie, I need…”

Regulus stopped licking and looked up to you with that shit-eating grin. He ran a hand over his chin before taking his fingers out of you and licking them clean.

“What do you need, sweetheart?”

Regulus quickly took his place on top of you and turned your face to his.

“Tell me what you need.”

He said in a cheeky tone as he kissed your cheek not coming near your mouth. His hand had gone between your bodies to rub his erection against your clit.

“Make love to me.”

You cried.

“Make love to me, beautiful boy.”

Regulus smirked before shoving just the tip inside. You cried as he slowly pushed in a little more. He gave you enough for a bit of pleasure but not enough to leave you starry-eyed and gasping.

“Reggie, you aren’t playing fair.’

You whimpered. Regulus chuckled as he began to make love to you with just the little bit of his cock that he had given you.

“Who said that I played fair?”

He asked. Your violet eyes opened, narrowing on his arrogant smirk.

“Fine, if you aren’t going to fuck me properly then give me the vibrator in the bedside table. I know what to do with it.”

Regulus’ cheeky expression instantly faded and was replaced with that jealous scowl that he wore so well. This was the scowl that he always wore when you would talk to another boy that wasn’t Regulus or Evan. The last time that you had really seen Regulus’ jealous side was the day that the two of you had ran into Sirius in town and the older brother hugged you. Normally you wouldn’t play into Regulus’ jealousy. Today, however, it would get you what you wanted.

Without another word, Regulus shoved in balls deep leaving you spasming around him.

“You don’t need that toy when you have me.”

He hissed raising your thigh over his hip to give him deeper access to your body. You fought the urge to cry every time the tip of his cock hit your cervix. Regulus quickly put a hand over your mouth.

“Hush now. Do you want everyone to know what it sounds like when I fuck you?”

You shook your head as Regulus removed his hand in order to steady his own shaking body.

“Reggie, it feels so good.”

You cried with each snap of his hips. He didn’t ease up on the speed of his thrusts. You could tease him and tell him that he was being mean. That would just result in your cervix being abused harder. Not that you would be complaining. You would be moaning harder. You bit your bottom lip trying to stop the moans from coming out louder. In between heavy breaths you were already crying Regulus’ name.

Suddenly, Regulus pushed in further and held his position. He kept the head of his cock pressed against your womb’s entrance. You felt uncomfortably full. Rocking your hips, you pleased with him to move. Your body was stretching to accommodate Regulus’ sudden action.

“I was reading in a magazine about making your lover come without moving and I think that you are about to.”

Regulus said with a moan. He was trying to stop his own body from coming. It didn’t matter how much you were pulsating around him, Regulus wanted to hold on. He wanted to have more time to torment you in a delicious way.

“Reggie!”

You cried his name a bit louder before finally finding your release. Regulus closed his eyes thinking over everything he could to stop himself from coming (school, his role as a death eater, anything) but it didn’t work. It took one more squeeze of your spasming core to send Regulus over the edge of no return.

The moment he came, you sighed in complement. His come filled you as Regulus continued to fuck you through his own orgasm until he too froze. Regulus muttered something that sounded like “god damn it” under his breath before collapsing on top of you.

Your fingers stroked through his sweat-drenched curls as Regulus continued to come inside of you.

“That was perfect.”

You whispered leaning up enough to kiss his forehead. Regulus slowly pulled out enough so he could roll you into his arms. When the two of you were able to move, he would call for Kreacher to come to change the sheets. For now, however, he was too lazy to consider moving.

Regulus’ laughing quickly got your attention. You looked up at him sleepily.

“What’s so funny?”

He grinned down at you with a playful smile.

“By the way, there is a silencing charm on our room. Mother cast it herself. Just thought that you should know.”

_______

@fairywriter-oracle

@amelie-black

@swinginsoulbailiffrascal

@velveteencurls

@realgaytrash

@scarletscross

@sunles

@brokencasbutt67-writer

@authoressskr

@hankypranky

@fandom-trash-worth-it

@shaylybaby2032

@marichromatic

@maggioli-m

@emiwrites3reads

@shadows-and-padlocked-hearts

@knight-of-gleefulness

@wontlookaway

@mycuddlycorner

@stuckinsaudi1

@untoldshortsofthefandoms

@sprnaturallover

@shitfaceddaniel

@mycuddlycorner

@li0nh34rt

@tas898

#regulus black #regulus black x reader #timothee chalamet as regulus black #evan rosier #the ancient and noble house of black #marauders era fic #walburga black #orion black #regulus arcturus black #death eater regulus #harry potter fan fiction #smut warning #Regulus x Reader #the rosier family #druella rosier black #slytherin reader #Princess #Princess update

146 notes · View notes

beautifulterriblequeen · 3 years

Text

Not-so-long white elf hair?

Am I on again about Runaan’s hair? Yes, yes I am! *finger guns*

Runaan’s worked really hard on his appearance. He wants it to say everything he wishes and nothing he doesn’t. And his look does have a lot to say:

But @hoothalcyon got me thinking about one particular bit of Runaan’s look that seems to only be visible here in this one image:

Is this a short lock of hair? It could just be an artistic take on the fact that Runaan has a ridiculous amount of long white elf hair, which he does. Just oodles and armfuls of it, it’s everywhere, RIP the Ruthari household shower drain.

Or, it could be a fun detail with a specific bit of character development behind it. Hair cutting can be a highly symbolic act, especially for a character with distinct long hair.

It’s interesting that this apparently cut lock has been deliberately hidden beneath Runaan’s voluminous hairstyle, as if its visibility might expose some kind of secret or weakness.. but what? Is Runaan just Moonshadowing things again, or is there something he’s shy or even embarrassed about regarding his potentially missing hair?

Hair can be cut in mourning--see Amaya, who may have chopped her hair in mourning for Sarai, and the gay icon Achilles, who cut a lock of his hair in mourning over Patroclus.

It can also be cut for failure or defeat. A recent fictional example is the long-haired and undefeated Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones, whose people would cut their hair when they lost a battle--and he never had.

Hair is also given as a sign of deep affection, in curls and locks, and kept by friends and lovers as a remembrance token, especially when they must be apart. There are few gifts as intimate as literally giving a piece of yourself to another.

And then there’s the angsty possibility that Runaan didn’t cut it himself. Ethari might have taken it for a spell Runaan willingly agreed to, and that’s very soft and fluffy. But perhaps Avizandum had it taken, maybe as part of a blood promise that bound Runaan to his assassin leader duty or somesuch. Or Runaan had a close call when he got those scars on his chest, and he also lost a lock of hair during the same incident, for magic either primal or dark. We saw Rayla’s braid getting burned for magic, and it seems that much of dark magic has a primal magic inspiration, so I suppose it’s possible that a Moonshadow braid could be consumed during a Moon spell too.

If I were to take a guess--which I’m super gonna do--I’d guess Runaan’s hair was given as a gift. It’s got to be ridiculously hard to get up close behind an accomplished assassin long enough to cut his hair and then survive long enough to get back out of range!

Ethari makes gifts all the time. He is a crafter, a creator. He brings new things into the world. It’s easy for him to imagine and make things that didn’t exist before. Runaan is a taker, though. He doesn’t create, he destroys. And he’s super focused on that, so he probably doesn’t have a lot of soft hobbies in which he makes stuff. Alas.

But you know what he does have? His beautiful long hair. It’s unique to him. No one else has that hair. Runaan likes to give his husband things, he likes to speak Ethari’s love language to him. But perhaps early in their relationship (how fast does elf hair grow, anyway?) he impulsively sliced off a lock and handed it over so Ethari could remember him while he was away on a mission. Or perhaps it was part of their wedding ritual to braid and cut a long lock of hair and then hold its ends and dance, Prince-of-Egypt style.

The more important Runaan’s hair is to him, the more significant it is if this is a chopped lock. Did he cut it recently, or has it grown out from being chopped much closer to his head? Did he give it out of affection, dedication? In apology, out of guilt? As a promise? Is it involved in a magic spell? Was it taken from him? Where is it now?

I’ll tell you where I want it to be. I want it to be braided and looped over a little mushroom light next to Ethari’s side of the bathroom mirror, where it catches all the prettiest light glimmers, and he can look at it anytime he wants to, and it never fails to make him smile, because he put that braid in Runaan’s hair, and when Runaan gave him that braided lock, it was the first time anyone had ever given Ethari swirlies.

Do I have a fic in which Runaan braids and cuts a lock of his own hair for a magic spell with Ethari? Yes, I do. Did I know about this apparent short lock in Runaan’s hair when I wrote it? Nope!

#tdp headcanons #tdp speculation #runaan #long white elf hair #ruthari #tdp angst #part angst and part fluff hi it's me #tdp

36 notes · View notes

thetwoplayergays · 4 years

Text

RFA playing dnd

I’ve only personally played DnD a couple of times with my friends but I couldn’t help but imagine the RFA playing :p

Yoosung

Plays a simple human paladin

Forgets that he’s also meant to be supporting the party and charges into every situation

“There’s a cave-“

“I LIGHT UP MY SWORD-“

“......”

As a result, he keeps dying in the middle of battle, causing the rest of the party to have to constantly go out of their way to heal him

He gets very into roleplay, which came from his constant LOLOL sessions, but is terrible when it comes to any kind of seduction missions.

“She looks at you Yoosung with wide, flirtatious eyes~”

Nat 1 on composure, especially when MC is DMing

Zen

Doesn’t quite understand the appeal, but will play anyway because MC asked him too

Plays a high elf wizard

Because “the elves are the prettiest” and “the wizard is the magic class, right MC? With the spells?”

Unfortunelty, his inexperience + a level 1 wizard causes him to follow in Yoosung’s footsteps and die in almost every encounter.

“I cast.. um.. fireball?”

“Roll.”

“....a 2?”

MC be kind to him

He usually doesn’t roleplay much, but when it comes to the seducing missions?

This is the boy for you. Natural 20 charm right there.

He gets SO into it

Jaehee

She understands the game even less than Zen does

Yoosung made her character for her, a half-elf cleric because she’s the mum of the RFA

“A cleric?”

“Yes Jaehee.”

She always ends up using all her spell slot healing Zen’s character, much to Yoosung’s complaining

“I cast-“

“Jaehee that was your last spell slot..”

“Oh... what am I meant to do now?”

“You could... punch the goblin?”

Jaehee ends up multiclassing as a barbarian after she gets more into the game purely so she can stop playing just support and beat the shit out of the enemies

Ends up carrying the team through most of the encounters

Jumin

Oh boy

“MC I don’t understand. You want me to pretend to be someone else, in a made up fantasy world, and kill things for money?”

“......yes?”

Chooses to be a human fighter as that logically made the most sense to him.

And why would be pretend to be a made up race when he already knew how to be a human?

Relies WAY too much on rolls to do things and refuses to roleplay

“Do you want to say hi to the bar-“

“I rolled a 15 MC. What does that mean?”

“J-Jumin just walk up to her and say hi.”

“Do I have to roll for that?”

“Jumin no-“

Spends way too much time working on a backstory for his character that never actually gets revealed

“How can I play a character which an unrealistic childhood, MC? It is extremely over the top for both his parents to have been caught in that fire. The father must have been on a business trip.”

Seven

You already know what’s going on yall

We all know Seven would be that player

Gnome bard. All the way.

“I ROLL TO SEDUCE” is his catchphrase

What’s even more annoying is that he gets a high roll almost every time

“SEVEN NO YOU CAN’T BURN DOWN THE VILLAGE-“

“IM CHAOTIC EVIL I CAN DO WHAT I WANT-“

“THAT’S NOT HOW IT WORKS-“

He probably gave his character the most tragic backstory of them all “just cause”

He brings a different instrument to the game session every week to use when he’s bardically inspiring someone, much to the dismay of the rest of the party

Gets super into the roleplaying.

Are we at all surprised?

Has definitely cosplayed his character for a session more than once

Much like Jumin, V doesn’t quite understand the point of DnD

But if MC wants to play, who is he to say no?

Ended up choosing an elven druid after reading up on the different backstory of each class

The idea of being one with nature was quite appealing to him

Only problem is he has no idea how to help the party- in any circumstance

He’s misreading dice, adding the wrong modifiers, accidentally attacking the party instead of the creatures.

“I cast.. vicious mockery on... that one?”

“V THATS MY CHARACTER YOU WEASIL-“

One time, he ended up critical hitting an ogre and killed him in one hit, much to the surprise of the RFA

He was pretty chuffed with himself for the rest of the game.

“Maybe this isn’t so bad-“

He ended up dying a few rounds later after pissing off a dwarf

Saeran

Surprisingly, Saeran was actually up for playing when you asked him to

The idea of being able to be a different person for a while was very appealing to the boy

He ended up choosing a tiefling rouge from a starter set who he ended up designing himself

Much to everyone’s surprise, the character’s backstory was actually the modest out of all of them

“Why would I give them a tragic backstory? Don’t you think they’re going through enough?”

Protect

Is always the one who’s looting the monsters or splitting the party without permission

Yet somehow hasn’t ended up dying yet?

Saeran doesn’t roleplay either, not to anyone’s surprise, but he does offer the occasional input into in character mission planning just to make sure seven doesn’t end up making them do something extremely stupid that would get them all killed

#mysme luciel #mysme mc #mysme zen #mysme saeran #mysme headcanons #mysme #mystic messenger headcanon #mystic messenger #mm v #mm seven #mm jumin #mm zen #mm headcanons

72 notes · View notes

higuchimon · 3 years

Text

[fanfic] Fair Won Prize: Chapter 1

It wasn’t much of a tavern, really. One room, a dozen or so tables scattered around, all of them battered and knife-scarred, and the chairs set before them not that much better. On one side a fireplace kept the room warm, or made a reasonably good attempt at such anyway. The chimney was in good enough condition that the smoke wended its way out of it instead of into the tavern itself.

Vector sniffed at the sight of it, lip curling. “There isn’t anywhere better?”

“Not around here,” Durbe replied, catching the eye of the tavern owner and gesturing him over. “And not that we could get to before that storm breaks.”

“Are you sure it’s going to be a storm?” Vector wanted to know. He wasn’t pouting by any means; this place just looked like trouble waiting to happen.

Vector had no problems with trouble. He just preferred to be the one starting it.

“Gilag is and that’s good enough for me,” Alit said, hands on his hips. “You wanna argue about that?”

Vector sniffed once again but subsided, for the most part. He followed the rest of the group over to the largest table, suitable for seven people only if they were close enough to one another.

Vector made a point to sit next to Mizael. He’d made a point of doing that everywhere they could for the last three months, since they’d formed their little band of adventurers. For one thing, Mizael was the absolutely prettiest of the seven of them, and Vector saw no reason to deny himself an attractive view.

Sitting here also provided him with the chance to remain hidden from most of the other people in the tavern, because they weren’t alone there. With Mizael in his sight and the various groups of thugs, mercenaries, and dimwits out of his sight, Vector thought spending the time of the storm here might be tolerable.

“What can I get for you fine folks?” The tavern owner asked once they’d settled in. “Gotta tell you, we probably don’t have what high-born folks like you are used to.”

Durbe offered a smile. “You might be surprised what we’re used to. But a good round of ale should do for a start.”

Mizael cleared his throat and Durbe chuckled. “I’m sorry. A round of ale for everyone else and if you have some sort of wine, my elven friend here would much prefer that.”

The tavern owner peered at Mizael, who peered right back, head held up high and with a light tilt to his head, asking without words if there were some kind of issue to his presence there.

“A genuine elf? We don’t get many of your – we haven’t seen too many elves around here in the longest time,” the tavern keeper declared. Vector did not like the sudden switch of words, nor did he like the way the keeper kept on staring. Granted, Mizael was attractive, but he was also Vector’s.

He just hadn’t gotten around yet to admitting it. But Vector had plans on that score.

Before the tavern keeper could scurry off, Gilag raised his hand for attention. “Could you bring me some water?” His hand dropped back down, petting Ponta, and the keeper’s gaze followed that way, blinking at the sight of the tanuki.

“O-of course, sir! I’ll be back right!”

He hurried out of sight, eyes still a little round in surprise. The tavern just had one room, but a curtain hung in between the majority of the room and where he presumably kept his stock of liquor. They could hear him moving around back there, pouring out ale, wine, and water.

“So you’re an elf.”

Vector turned back to see half a dozen grungy guys, who looked as if they at best had a nodding acquaintance with a toothbrush and a comb, but probably hadn’t bothered to see a tailor about mending their clothes in some time. Patches and stitched up tears were all done in a very slapdash, haphazard fashion. But to make up for that, every one of them stood a minimum of six feet tall, with muscles on top of muscles, and they all wore nearly identical sneers.

The one in the front, who’d spoken, had his eyes burning toward Mizael, who barely gave them so much as a look. Alit, however, grinned mischievously.

“You’re an elf, Mizael? Why didn’t you tell us?” He reached over to poke at the blond. “Do we really know you, then?”

Mizael rolled his eyes. “I would’ve thought the evidence would be obvious.”

The leader of the intruders glowered at them both. “I was talking to him. No one said you could interfere.”

“You were talking at him,” Ryouga said, his voice dangerously quiet. “I don’t think any of us are interested in a conversation with you.”

Mr. Muscles – as Vector mentally dubbed him, for lack of neither knowing nor caring what his actual name might be – glared at them all, rolling his tattered sleeves up to expose his arms. “I wasn’t talking to you, either!” He took a better look at Ryouga, then started to laugh. “What are you, some kind of a musician? Get out of here with that kind of junk.” He turned his gaze back toward the others. “Can any of you put up a decent fight? It gets boring around here when the weather gets bad.”

He sneered for a moment. “Well, any of you except the pretty elf and the musician.”

The looks exchanged were quicker than lightning and ended with Ryouga rising to his feet.

“Oh, no, I said not you!” Mr. Muscles laughed raucously. “I wouldn’t want to break your delicate hands!”

Ryouga sounded more annoyed than anything else. “If you want a fight, you’re going to get it with me.”

The whole bunch of toughs laughed even harder. Mr. Muscles shook his head and cracked his knuckles hard. “Well, if that’s the way you want it. Just don’t blame me when you can’t warble a tune or play an instrument anymore.”

Vector leaned forward, a gleam of mischief in his violet eyes. “Let’s make this more interesting. I’ll wager a silver that Ryouga puts you on your back in under three hits… and that you never lay so much as a finger on him.”

Mr. Muscles stared at Vector as if he’d never seen someone like him before. “You’ve gotta be joking! What, are you new?”

One of his buddies leaned forward as well. “I dunno, boss, I think we should take his money once you’re done.” A greedy smirk twisted his lips. “I say we take all of his money when you’re done.”

Vector smirked right back at him. I am going to kill you. “Let’s see how this fight comes out first.”

Mr. Muscles and Ryouga moved to the center of the room, Muscles’ minions moving the other tables and chairs out of the way to clear a space. Muscles flexed.

“Remember, all the pain you’re going to have is your own fault. Don’t blame me for it,” Muscles declared. “Got it?”

“Got it.” Ryouga looked more or less bored with the whole thing. Vector wondered where their ale was; it couldn’t take that long to pour out their drinks.

Then Muscles threw a fist at Ryouga, a hit that if it had connected would’ve probably hurt most people.

Ryouga stepped back and moved around, still looking as if this were the worst way to spend an afternoon he could think of, and not out of fear of being beaten up.

Muscles snarled at Ryouga’s near-effortless dodge, and the three or four that followed. “Stop running away! You’re not fighting!”

“All right, if you insist.” Ryouga shrugged before he powered one fist directly into Muscles’ chin, packed with every ounce of his strength behind it.

Muscles blinked. His eyes slowly rolled up to the back of his head and he fell over, not moving. One of his toughs dropped down next to him, hand to his throat. Vector approved of killing a leader while he was down. Perhaps this one showed a little sense.

Then the tough moved back. “He’s alive. He’s just out like a candle.”

Vector mentally sighed. It was so hard to find good assassins these days.

Then he smiled, looking at the rest of them. “I believe I won our wager. Hand over my money.” His eyes flicked from one to the other of them. “I think one silver from all of you will do.” And it would pay for their drinks, too, once the tavern keeper finally brought them out.

Two of the toughs dragged Mr. Muscles out of the tavern while the one who’d spoken up before now started to count out pieces of silver. Vector recounted them openly before he swept them into a neat stack.

“All right. The fun’s over, go away now.” He gave a little flick of one hand before he settled back into his dark cozy corner, quite satisfied with events so far.

The tavern keeper hurried over, carrying their drinks on a tray, and settled it down on the table in front of them. “Sorry for taking so long,” he apologized. “But I heard what was going on and I didn’t want to get in the middle of it and mess your drinks up.”

Ryouga shrugged, reaching for one of the mugs – which at leas looked clean – and tossing it back so fast Vector doubted that he even tasted it. “Sorry for any damages.”

The tavern keeper only shrugged. “Bejt and his group do that kind of thing whenever there’s new people in town. I’m used to it. Your drinks are on me tonight, and just tell me when you want to stop.” He turned toward Gilag, mouth open to ask something else, and froze.

Gilag set the bowl of water he’d been drinking from on their table, while Ponta peered up from where he held the mug of ale in his own paws. The tavern keeper blinked, rubbed his eyes, and then hurried out of sight, leaving them to their drinks.

“I don’t care how much money he could bring in if he’s a real bard,” Bejt growled, staring into the spotted mirror and trying to decide how much of what he saw was because of the low quality of the glass and how much was from that one hit that ridiculous musician landed on him. “I’m going to kill him and I’m going to have fun doing it.”

One of his assistants reached as if to pat him on the shoulder and got a death-glare sharp enough to cut paper from his efforts. He pulled his hand back and managed a quick smile. “Of course you will, boss. Doesn’t matter how good they are, once they finish drinking the good stuff, they’re not gonna be going anywhere we don’t want them to.”

Bejt grinned, showing a mouth that wasn’t nearly as full of teeth as someone without his lifetime of brawling would have. “That elf’s not going anywhere, not until I’m done with him. I’m going to have some fun and then when he’s nice and obedient, I know a goodplace to sell him. He’ll make us enough of a fortune to last for the next twenty years!”

“Are we sure this is a good idea?” One of his other assistants spoke up, a nervous twitch to one eye. This wasn’t surprising; Olan twitched about everything. “I mean, they’ve got horses. And one of them is a winged horse. And all that armor. And weapons.” He shuddered, ducking his head. “They look like they know how to use them.”

Bejt shrugged. “They wouldn’t be the first traveling mercs we’ve taken down. Won’t be the last, either.”

“I don’t think they’re just mercs. I mean, winged horse?” Olan shuddered again, staring up at his boss. “I think they’re heroes.”

“Yeah, right.” Bejt snorted. “The whole bunch of them don’t look like they’re together enough to kill a slug, let alone a dragon.” Heroes did things like that. At least they had in all the stories Bejt had ever heard. Killed dragons, rescued princesses from ravening monsters – or monsters from ravening princesses. He’d heard a lot of weird stories.

But that bunch? A musician, a pretty elf, what looked like a priestess, some short kid with maybe half of Bejt’s own muscles and too much of a sense of humor for Bejt’s tastes, someone in armor who might’ve been a down on his luck knight, some guy who had even more muscles than Bejt did but spent his time talking to some sort of fuzzy raccoon thing, and that idiot in the back who never let anyone get a good look at him.

That wasn’t what heroes were made out of it. Heroes had lots of good armor and didn’t stop in places like this, no matter what the weather looked like.

They might’ve thought pretending to be heroes would keep people off of them, but Bejt wasn’t most people. Once they had two or three rounds of the house special, they wouldn’t be awake enough to do anything at all.

That brought his thoughts right around to the pretty blond elf. Elves lived a very long time, he knew, and he couldn’t help but wonder what that elf had done in his life and how much he could be taught. Bejt looked forward to keeping him for at least a few years. He’d need to get properly trained before he could get sold, in order to make the most money, didn’t he? Bejt hadn’t ever trained someone before, but it couldn’t be that difficult. Smack ‘em when they did what Bejt didn’t want them to do until they learned better, that was it

It would definitely be a lot of fun. He looked forward to finding out just how much fun it was. He’d always had an eye for pretty faces of every kind, and there weren’t too many people prettier than an elf. He’d never had the chance to have one like this before, and he looked forward to finding out what it would be like.

All he needed was another hour or so, and then he and the others would be set for life.

Vector sniffed at the mug, then set it back down after taking a tiny taste of the ale. He’d never been much of one for drinking in the first place, at least not drinks that came from places like this. He wondered if it would be too much to ask if one of their mage-types could do something about the storm so they didn’t have to stay here at all.

We could get some decent food and drinks somewhere else. Maybe even a good bed. He knew that being on the road didn’t entitle him to the comforts of home, but they could at least have some comfort of some kind.

He leaned his head back against the wall and winced at the shock of thunder that rolled on by a heartbeat later. No one else looked bothered by the rain at all. Gilag sat on the outside of the table, closest to the door, and from the way he kept looking out there, it wouldn’t have been too surprising if he got up to wander out there. Druids did things like that, soaking up the rain. Vector had no idea of why druids couldn’t invest in some kind of weather protection. Maybe it was a religious thing.

He’d never wasted his time on religion and until he’d come to join this group, he hadn’t associated with religious types of any sort. But traveling with a druid and a priestess meant that he got more than he’d ever wanted of the whole concept.

He let his gaze drift back to Mizael. He could think of one or two gods he’d like to thank for the creation of the elven race and for Mizael in particular. Along with one or two he’d consider offering up a tribute to in order to get the elf compliantly in his bed, without risking Jinlong having him for dinner or the rest of the group getting furious at him.

Which meant he would have to keep on courting Mizael so that it was all willing on his side.

He wasn’t used to having to ask for what he wanted. Or who he wanted. He’d commented once at breakfast that he’d seen an attractive person the day before in the marketplace and that evening, that same person awaited him in his bed, courtesy of his father.

That had been an enjoyable few months, all things considered. If it had been possible, or workable with his father’s plans, he didn’t doubt that he would’ve already enjoyed time with Mizael.

I think this might be more interesting, though. Frustrating, but enjoyable in the end, once he’d achieved his goal. There was something to be said for getting something desired by hard work instead of being given it.

Vector glanced to the others again, the sound of the rain battering against the side of the building, making it plain they weren’t going anywhere right now. He suspected Rio and Gilag would both insist that they shouldn’t try to mess around with the weather, something about natural causes and not interfering. That made no sense to him at all. What good was magic if you couldn’t use it to twist the world around to the way you wanted it to be?

His eyes narrowed suddenly as he took in what was going on with his companions. He wasn’t surprised to see Gilag’s eyes drooping, let alone Ponta’s, not with that rain. If it didn’t call a druid out to dance in the rain or whatever, it would probably put them to sleep.

But Ponta spent so little time being visible when they were in civilized territory that Vector almost forgot he even existed. There he was, having finished his ale – you’d think a magical creature would have better taste than that! - and now curled up on Gilag’s lap, sound asleep.

Vector checked on Alit: already asleep. Durbe was as well, eyes closed and chest rising and falling evenly. Ryouga still had his eyes half-open, and Rio looked as if she were fighting off the urge to sleep herself.

He looked at Mizael then, and knew something was wrong.

Elves don’t sleep. Not like that, anyway. Mizael had explained it once, but Vector had been too wrapped up in admiring the way the sunlight glinted off the elf’s golden hair to pay attention. He sort of wished that weren’t true now.

But Mizael’s eyes were as tightly closed as the others, even as Ryouga’s slid all the way shut, and Rio followed him into slumber in another few moments.

This wasn’t right in the slightest. Vector’s thoughts raced before he chose his path, closed his eyes, and let himself sag a little more, as if he’d succumbed as well. There wasn’t any use in trying to wake them up. They’d be too sluggish to do anything for too long. Not to mention, Vector had a feeling he knew who was involved in this, and he swore he’d paint the walls with their blood.

He couldn’t see what was going on, but after what felt like forever, he could hear footsteps entering, and a sense of shadow fell over him. He kept himself from moving, no matter how much he wanted to, and listened.

To Be Continued

Note: And now we return to the world of the Order of the Outcasts. This is that little interlude piece to explain something. A larger piece revolving around Yuuma, Kaito, Haruto, and Astral will come at a later point, on SilvorMoon's profile. But until then, I hope you enjoy this.

#fanfic #higuchimon writes #YGO ZEXAL #mizael #vector #Vector x Mizael #mizael x vector #chapters: fair won prize #series: order of the outcasts #au: fantasy

2 notes · View notes

emperor-uncarnate · 5 years

Photo

My Top 20 Favorite Video Games

(Listed in the order in which I played them)

Pokémon Red Version - Along with my matching red Game Boy Pocket, this was the first video game I owned that was purely mine and not handed down from an older kid. I still go back and replay this every couple of years on that very same Game Boy Pocket or on the 3DS Virtual Console. I know there’s FireRed and a whole series of more modern Pokémon games at my disposal but the original Red Version easily gets the most nostalgia points. Sometimes that’s what it’s all about, no? Banjo-Kazooie - Similarly, the N64 became my first home console that wasn’t a hand-me-down and it came equipped with both bear and bird (complete with “screaming about it on Christmas morning”). After going back and replaying this almost twenty years later I gained new appreciation for how goofy and colorful it is. Treasure Trove Cove is so fucking catchy. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle - From its kickin’ soundtrack to its satisfying controls to its random-ass virtual pet simulator this game has it all. Multiplayer was always pretty exciting too, I remember many an afternoon trying to one-up a friend during a grind race. No 3D Sonic game compares to this if you ask me, although Sonic Heroes and Sonic Unleashed come sort of close in their own ways. What I wouldn’t give for a proper Sonic Adventure 3... Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes - I remember playing this at my local arcade in my youth before eventually getting a port of it for the Xbox 360. The look of its 2D sprites are phenomenal and - if it will help you understand why I love this game - I’m singing “I Wanna Take You For a Ride” to myself as I type this. Metroid: Zero Mission - This was the first Metroid game I ever actually beat, and it was the game that made me fall in love with the series. I love Metroid Fusion and Metroid: Samus Returns as well but I like Zero Mission’s visual style the most. I was so thrown for a loop when Samus lost her Power Suit towards the end of the game but it only made getting it back that much sweeter. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes - I started playing this one in 2004 but didn’t officially beat it until way later in 2017. For a while I had a pattern I’d go through every few years of “start playing, enjoy it for a while, get lost, and start over for some reason.” Took me thirteen years to get serious about it but it earned its place as my favorite of the 3D Metroid games. I felt so fulfilled once it was complete, like I was achieving a childhood dream. Kingdom Hearts II - I don’t think I would’ve gotten into this game if not for my friend’s suggestion but I couldn’t thank him enough for it. This is another one of those games you only vaguely understand when you’re a kid only to realize how complex and intuitively designed it is in your adulthood. After the long wait, Kingdom Hearts III proved to be pretty satisfying but I just have too much history with its predecessor for it not to win a spot on this list. Jak 3 - Though my interest in this series burned fast and bright, this game still sticks out to me as one of the best I’ve ever experienced. I played the third installment before Jak and Daxter or Jak 2 but that’s fine because it’s the best goddamn one. Driving around in the desert, swapping out gun modules, and taking flight on some janky wings made of light were definitely the highlights for me. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm - I got into this game during the latter period of Wrath of the Lich King but I didn’t feel like an official WoW player until this fiery, grim expansion. It was the first real online game I’d ever played (if you don’t count Neopets and Adventure Quest) that I started as a Night Elf Warrior in a PVP server and ended as a Worgen Hunter in a non-PVP server. Because fuck the Horde, that’s why. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - I got Skyrim on a whim because I literally couldn’t think of anything else I wanted for Christmas in 2011. There was no hype for me, I knew nothing ‘bout no Dragonborns, but I thought “heck it” and dove in anyway. After originally playing it on Xbox 360 and replaying it more recently on PS4 (with a slew of mods) I can say with confidence this game continues to blow me away. I always seem to find something new even though I feel like I know it like the back of my hand. I did get involved in The Elder Scrolls Online later on but Skyrim is still where it’s at. Soul Calibur V - I was first introduced to the tale of souls and swords (eternally retold, of course) through Soul Calibur II and only because you could play as Link on the Gamecube version. Fast-forward to 2012 and I was still on board with its story and cast of characters but its character creation was really what kept me hooked. Soul Calibur VI turned out to be a little disappointing but I definitely got the most out of its fifth installment and I’m guilty of having played for hours and hours on end. Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward - What began as a free trial because I was bored turned into a years-long interest in yet another MMO. While the base game was okay it really picked up speed with Heavensward and I was hooked from that point onwards. After a certain point I caught myself not skipping cutscenes and discovered - oh hey - the story’s actually really good. Star Wars Battlefront - I loved this game when it came out on PS4 and used it often to get my insatiable Star Wars fix. Aerial combat was my downright favorite part of the game and I loved smoking some TIE Fighters in an X-Wing or in the Millennium Falcon. Its sequel Star Wars Battlefront II could’ve made this list but EA was being a real dirtbag about it and now I find it hard to look back on happy memories of it the same way. The 2015 game is thankfully unsullied by those sour elements, however, so I’d say its gotta be my favorite Star Wars game ever. Overwatch - This game came to me at a time when I only wanted to play games that had character creation. I was hesitant to get to know all the characters and lore but I’m overjoyed I did since they’re so rich in personality and fun details. Once I got the hang of characters like McCree, Soldier, Reinhardt, and Widowmaker I was absolutely sold and I still play it two years later. Sonic Mania - The delightful trailer for this game got me all riled up but I wouldn’t know just how great it was until I was playing it myself. I don’t think I could ever truly enjoy my previous favorite 2D Sonic games (Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and Sonic CD) ever again because this game just feels better than all of them combined. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - I didn’t really grow up with the Legend of Zelda, only ever playing A Link to the Past and Twilight Princess, but I immediately knew I was going to enjoy this open world take on the series. Just the sheer freedom of what you could do and where you could go was enough to reel me in and its aesthetic still amazes me with how great of a mood it generates. Final Fantasy VII - I still remember going into a GameStop when I was in high school and naively attempting to buy a used copy of this game for the PS1. It was an “epic fail,” as I would’ve said at the time. But over a decade later I downloaded it on the PS4 and went to town, getting my full FF7 experience at long last and loving every minute of it. Very stoked for the remake; it’s probably my most anticipated game right now. Marvel’s Spider-Man - What a surefire hit this was. From the moment the first gameplay footage was out I knew this was going to be the must-have web-swinging, wall-crawling good time. I love that there are so many ways to play the same character and everyone can really embody their own version of Peter Parker. I’m also from New York City so seeing a digital rendition of Manhattan was a real treat (even though they changed uptown a lot and my old apartment doesn’t exist in the game). Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Nine of the other nineteen entries in this list feature a character who’s playable in this latest Smash game. I get that people like Melee for reasons and whatever but how can you not like SSBU, the game that has it all? I’m still riding the high of Banjo and Kazooie entering the fray and I absolutely cannot wait to see where things go from here. Never had more fun playing local multiplayer in my life. Red Dead Redemption II - Never cared for Grand Theft Auto and the first Red Dead Redemption was fun but damn, there’s nothing quite like its sequel. I’m still working my way through the story just because I’ve spent so much time out in the wide open world, taking my time and seeing the sights. I might be a city boy but I have a deep appreciation for the American West and if this game ain’t just the prettiest damn thing I ever did see... hoo-WEE! Top shelf.

#video games #pokemon #banjo-kazooie #sonic #metroid #marvel #kingdom hearts #jak and daxter #star wars #soul calibur #final fantasy #skyrim #spider-man #super smash bros #red dead redemption 2 #breath of the wild

16 notes · View notes

suddenrundown · 6 years

Text

All the Time in the World: Chapter 5

Read previous chapter

Its what’s on the inside that counts.

A cheesy saying, but one that Barry strived to live by nonetheless. He wasn’t one to make snap decisions about people upon meeting them based of first impressions or appearances. At least, he tried not to. There was some amount of decency in most souls, he believed, and even if it wasn’t obvious immediately, he’d give them a few chances. Obviously, some people really were just miserable beings; he’d run across some, both in his former life and in the past eleven years. But most proved his theory, given the chance, and he’d met and become friends with so many different and interesting people in his lifetime. It made life more fulfilling.

Which was why this particular world made very little sense to him.

Continued under the cut, or you can read it on ao3

“Have you tried wearing something other than jeans?”

“No. I mean, I don’t really have any—wait, what’s wrong with my jeans? You don’t like my jeans?”

“Did I say that? No, your jeans are rad. I’ve never met anyone who could pull off dad jeans as well as you can.”

“Dad jeans? Lup, they’re not-”

Lup looked up from the map she was studying, smirking. “I mean, if you weren’t wearing jeans, how would I even know its you? Oh my god, wait!” she gasped. “Are they like, a talisman or something, that holds in some super power? If you take them off, do you become like Super Monster Barry?”

“Yeah, actually,” Barry confirmed, voice hushed now. “I was trying to keep it a secret all this time, but you caught me. At night in my room, I take them off and I get super buff. Bigger than Magnus. Bigger than that ripped guy who kept throwing boulders at the Starblaster all last cycle. It’s terrifying.”

Lup snorted at that. “Holy shit.”

“Right?” Barry chuckled. Then he sobered, rubbing the back of his neck. “Uh, is there actually something wrong with-”

“Of course not!” she interrupted, looking serious now. “No one who matters thinks there is. It’s just that this place is…judgmental.”

She wasn’t wrong. They’d been in this world for two months now, but it was blatantly obvious that they were being judged the moment the IPRE landed here.

The crew had seen fully functioning cities and humanoid beings as they flew the Starblaster down into the plane, and Davenport had deemed it safe to venture out soon after the ship landed in a wooded area just outside of town. They didn’t make it very far before they were visited by a group of well-dressed individuals demanding to know who they were and what their business here was. Davenport had tried to explain, but he was immediately cut off by a man in the middle, who seemed to be the leader of the group.

“Not you,” he’d basically sneered, pointing at Davenport but not sparing him a glance. His finger slid across the line until it made its way to Taako, and the man’s face had become instantly friendlier. “Him. Or her.” And at this, he pointed to Lup next to him.

The crew had gone silent, and they all stared in the direction of the twins. Barry could see Lup attempting to form words through her surprise, but Taako had gotten there first.

“We’re the IPRE, my dude, and we’re gonna be here for a while.”

Surprisingly, this made the man laugh. “That will be just fine. I would like you to come with me just for a bit, my friend, uh…” The man waved his hand as if beckoning for a name.

Taako cocked his head a bit. “Taako?” It sounded like a question.

“Taako, yes. Just for a bit. I’d like to know more but I’d rather not stand here and chat.” The man looked around as if the scenery of the woods offended him. When Taako didn’t immediately move, the man turned to smile at Lup. “You can come too, Miss.”

“Lup.” Lup offered, hesitantly.

“How lovely,” the man sighed. He then turned around and his group began to walk away “Anyway, come along,” he called over his shoulder.

The twins had glanced down the line back to Davenport, who gestured for them to go ahead.

“Careful,” he warned them. “We’ll be here.”

When the twins were out of sight, the rest of the crew continued to stand in silence, rooted to their spots, until Merle let out a low chuckle.

“What a dick.”

They all laughed at that and agreed, and with the tension broken, they made their way back into the Starblaster to wait for Taako and Lup to return. Barry’s stomach churned with anxiety, but he tried to comfort himself with the fact that if the man had wanted to hurt them, he probably would have done it here instead of taking them elsewhere. Besides, he seemed impressed by them for some reason. Thankfully, his worries were for nothing, as the twins came back in one piece a few hours later with a story to tell that made the everything make sense. In context, at least.

The man they’d met, Delman, was in charge of the city they’d flown over, and he was more than willing to share with Taako and Lup the way things worked, provided they tell him exactly why they were here. The twins were completely honest and took the opportunity to summarize the IPRE’s mission, about the Light, and about the timeframe they had to save this world from the Hunger. When they finished, they sat in awkward silence as Delman seemed to consider their explanation. Then he laughed.

“If that’s the story you’re sticking to, my friends, that’s quite alright with me.” As the twins tried to convince him, he shook his head. “Really, you look nice enough. I’m not sure about this Hunger nonsense, but I won’t stop you and your…associates from conducting whatever business you deem necessary, provided that you all understand how we operate.”

And with that, he told them briefly about the world. It sounded similar to home, except for one key difference: society was basically split up based on beauty.

“He didn’t really say so out right, but I sort of got the impression that if you didn’t have looks, you didn’t have much,” Lup explained, shuffling awkwardly. “People without them have harder jobs and worse living conditions by extension. Apparently, even the ‘pretty’ people spend large amounts of time and money trying to make themselves prettier, whatever that means. Didn’t really ask.” She paused then, clearly uncomfortable. “I mean, isn’t it like, a subjective thing? I don’t really get why-”

“Lup, I’m not offended by what happened earlier,” Davenport interrupted kindly. He gave her a smile. “Not everyone can appreciate such a dignified mustache,” he added, twirling the end of his. “Clearly this Delman fellow didn’t.”

“Sounds like an…interesting culture,” Lucretia said. “I don’t know what the standards of beauty are, but from the welcoming we got today, I’m guessing we might have a hard time.”

“Then again,” Taako spoke up from beside his sister, noticeably posing just a little. “You do have the two of us, and we evidently did pass the beauty portion of this little pageant show, so maybe privileges extend to you by association.”

Oh, well thank God. Barry stopped short of rolling his eyes. It’s not like Taako was wrong. Or not objectively one of the prettiest people he’d ever met.

And luckily, as Taako had predicted, the crew had had a relatively easy time of it so far. As Delman promised, they were left to their own devices as far as looking for the Light went, and they were granted access to the better parts of the city, including job positions, which was necessary for basic necessities and part of the expectations of living here. It wasn’t much of a burden, and in the case of some of them, entertaining. Taako had found a high fashion clothing shop and spent most of his time there, though he didn’t necessarily need to. Lucretia worked in a library, but Barry suspected that she spent most of her time there reading about the world for her own records. The rest of them found part time work in various shops, which allowed them time for their own personal activities. Like finding the Light.

Barry had taken up the endeavor himself this cycle, and as usual, Lup had volunteered herself as well. Luckily, they’d seen it falling this time around, so they had a direction to head in at least. And now that they’d gotten a detailed enough map of the area to search for it, they wanted to start as soon as possible. They hadn’t found it last cycle, and the IPRE had watched as the Hunger consumed the entire plane, growing bigger as it did. Given the resources they had, Barry had a feeling it wouldn’t be too difficult to find this time, so he wasn’t that concerned. His biggest concern was just making it through the year.

And maybe it was a silly thing to worry about. As far as he could tell, this place wasn’t all that dangerous. There were functioning societies, safe living conditions, and nothing that wanted to hunt them down. It’s just that the people here were….

“Judgemental’s a good word for it,” Barry agreed, watching as Lup circled an area on the map.

“My point is that people here are weird. And if you get snubbed, its nothing to do with you, its just them.” She looked up from her map again. “Personally, I think you’re pretty great, jeans and all. Wouldn’t change a single thing.” She winked.

He felt his cheeks turn red, and bent down to pretend to study the map in an attempt to hide it. “Gee, thanks,” he mumbled.

He didn’t do a good job of it. “Nerd,” she grinned.

The urge to say something cheesy and embarrassing was strong, but fortunately he was saved by a shouted greeting from Taako from behind him. Barry turned to find both the elf and a smartly dressed man he didn’t recognize approaching them.

“Playing hooky, Taako?” Lup asked her brother.

“Hell no, who’d play hooky from heaven itself? Nah, me and Flynn are just on break. He’s showing me the best place to eat lunch. The soup’s to die for, apparently.”

“Bring me back some, then.”

“Only if I don’t eat it all.”

Lup made a face, then turned to Flynn and smiled. “I’m Lup.”

Barry held up a hand. “Barry.”

Flynn’s eyes briefly slid to him before focusing on Lup. He smiled at her. “Nice to meet you.”

Barry couldn’t tell if he was mishearing the emphasis or not, but chose to believe it was in his head.

“Well, we’re off to have this life changing soup,” Taako announced with much emphasis that Barry did not make up as he turned to leave. “See ya, suckers.”

Barry watched Flynn as he turned and trailed after Taako, then turned back to the map on the table. “So we mostly have a plan of attack here. I think we should pack a backpack to get us through maybe a day or two, and we can set out tomorrow. And maybe Davenport will let us take the Starblaster at some point if we need to go super far, but we’ll play it by ear.” He turned to Lup. “Shit, all that talk about soup is making me hungry.”

Lup didn’t respond, and in fact gave no indication she heard him at all. She stared off in the direction that Taako and Flynn had gone.

“You there, Lup?” he asked, confused.

At the sound of her name, she turned towards him quickly. “What? Oh yeah.” She gave him a light punch in the arm. “Soup, I hear you!”

Day after day spent trekking further south from the main city, and Barry and Lup had nothing to show for it but tired feet and questions that they could answer if they only had time to stop and experiment with the world around them. No trace of the Light, but now they knew where it definitely wasn’t, so neither of them could really write off the month as a waste. Not that Barry could ever consider time spent with Lup a waste anyway.

With no sign of their prize anywhere, they decided to head back to civilization to regroup and gather more supplies before heading back out again. As they entered the city, they spotted Davenport walking through the square.

“Hey Cap’n Port!” Lup called.

Davenport turned at the nickname, and immediately looked relieved to see them. “You’re alive, I see. No luck, huh?”

“Not yet, but we think that based off the Light’s trajectory when it fell, we just have to adjust our course a little,” Barry reported. “According to the map we have, its in the direction of the other city.”

“Sounds like a good place to start. Be sure to rest up a day or two before you go. I’ll see you two in a bit, I’m off to find Lucretia,” Davenport said, giving them a small wave.

Lup saluted him. “Bye, Cap’n Port.” She then turned to Barry. “Let’s stop by and see Taako. Gonna beg him to make some food for us to take.”

“Sounds good.”

As they made their way to the shop, Barry quietly watched the passerby going about their business, feeling the judgment emanating from them. He’d forgotten about it over the past month away from them, but he’d try not to let it get to him while he was here.

“Afternoon, Lup,” came an unfamiliar voice.

They both turned to find an only vaguely familiar face as a tall, well dressed man came walking towards them. Barry remembered meeting him, but couldn’t for the life of him remember-

“Flynn!” Lup exclaimed with an incredible amount of enthusiasm. She then winced slightly, seemingly embarrassed about it.

At least she could remember the guy.

“Haven’t seen you around in a while,” Flynn said.

“We’ve been looking for the Light,” Barry told him.

Flynn glanced at Barry briefly, then looked away. “Ah, Taako mentioned something like that.”

“Do you know if he’s at work?” Lup asked, noticeably quieter now.

“Yes, he is, and I was on my way back there now. I’ll walk with you.”

As the three continued on their way, Barry fell silent as Lup and Flynn talked, feeling awkward. He didn’t see a point in speaking up, as anything he said might be ignored by the latter. Might as well spare himself the effort. When they reached the shop door, Lup turned to Barry.

“Coming in?”

“Nah, I don’t go into clothing shops I can’t buy dad jeans in,” Barry joked.

Lup laughed, and then reached up to pat his head. “That’s cute, good one,” she giggled.

Barry blushed slightly, and Lup laughed again as she headed inside. He smoothed his hair back down as he watched her go. The sound of a scoff behind him reminded him that Flynn was still standing there, and the smile he didn’t know he was wearing faded away.

The man was slightly taller than him, and he stared down to look directly at him now. Scrutinizing, Barry could tell. Like everyone else in this city, he was good looking in an other-worldly sort of way, but it didn’t seem like he’d had enhancements to make himself look like that. He looked like he might be friendly person, if he wanted to be.

He looked Barry up and down once, then smirked in a decidedly unfriendly way. “Yeah right,” he snorted.

Barry watched, confused and uncomfortable, as he opened the door and followed Lup inside.

Against the urging of Flynn, who said it was “absolutely awful” there, Barry and Lup travelled in the direction of the other city, where those who had been deemed not worthy of living in the main city lived. Both of them were apprehensive, but upon their arrival, they found that, despite looking a little more run down there, everyone was perfectly nice and welcoming. Barry tried not to take it to heart that their worst crime was looking as plain as himself and put his efforts toward searching for the Light.

After a few weeks of searching and asking around, they got a lead that someone on the outskirts of town had possession of an object that sounded like what they were looking for. They followed the directions of the townsfolk to a crumbling little house and found an older woman there, who gladly showed them that she did, indeed, have the Light. She was unwilling to hand it over for free, however, claiming she’d “found the funny thing fair and square, kids,”, but she was willing to hand it over if they worked for it.

With no other option, Barry and Lup spent a few more weeks helping the woman, Myra, fix and clean up her house. Neither complained and they found it fun at times, although Lup occasionally seemed to stress over it.

“We really need that Light, Barry. We need to get it back.”

Barry thought that was obvious and unsure why it needed restating, but he continually assured her they’d have it soon and be back with the rest of the IPRE. They had plenty of time left in the year, after all, and the Light was practically theirs already.

True to her word, Myra, with a safer and more livable house, handed over the Light, and sent the two on their way. Barry and Lup returned to the Starblaster late one evening, and Magnus rushed them both, blubbering and thanking them profusely for “not being dead”.

After untangling himself from Magnus’s bear hug, Barry, exhausted, brought the Light to Davenport for safe keeping, and then made his way back outside the ship to look for Lup. He found Taako hanging out by the entrance instead.

“Barold,” Taako said, drawing out the end of the name.

“Taako,” Barry replied, nodding. “Nice…hat?”

“What, this thing?” Taako adjusted the hat slightly. “Got it at the shop. Someone requested this thing specially made, and then had the gall to say they didn’t like it. But their loss is Taako’s gain. It’s beautiful.”

Barry stared up at it. The bottom of it expanded a few inches passed Taako’s head, and the top of the hat probably reached a foot taller than the elf did, the tip of it bending sharply down.

“It’s very…” Tall? Pointy? Purple? “You,” he finally decided.

“Thank you!” Taako smiled, pleased, then pointed at him. “You looking for Lup?”

“Yeah, actually.”

“I saw her go off with Flynn somewhere.”

“What? He was here?” Barry asked, surprised.

“Sure was,” Taako replied, already sounding mentally checked out of the conversation.

“Is he-I mean, will she um…come back?”

“Well yeah.” Taako turned and stared at him blankly. “Eventually.”

Barry decided not to wait up and head to bed instead, feeling vaguely uneasy for no particular reason.

The next morning at breakfast, Barry saw Lup walk in. Taako waggled his eyebrows at her, and Lup gave him a shove. She made a face at him, then grabbed a plate and sat down across from Barry.

“We gonna science the shit out of the Light today?” she asked.

Barry attempted to shake off the uneasy feeling in his chest. He smiled, but wasn’t sure if it looked right. “Definitely,” he managed anyway.

The IPRE couldn’t bank on much, but one thing they could say for certain was how much time they had. All of them knew at any given moment how many more months were left, how many days they had to get through, and if they were feeling really precise, how many minutes had to pass before the Hunger came to chase them off to a new world. The other guarantee was the seven of them. After eleven years together, they knew that they were the only permanent relationships they could have, and they knew how to work together and rely on each other.

This of course did not mean they didn’t form connections with the creatures they met, and it made it all the more important to find the Light to save them. They found it impossible to go through life never forming relationships with new people, so they allowed themselves to do so, knowing that there was an impermanence to those relationships. No matter what the type.

Davenport had once or twice gone for tea with a very pretty gnome a few cycles ago, and had come back much bubblier than his usual serious self. Merle had been awfully popular back in the second cycle with the dwarves, Barry remembered, but no one knew any details and definitely didn’t want to ask. Barry knew that Lup had not been the first of them to find a little more than a friendship with someone from one of the different worlds. It just had never been Lup.

And nothing really changed. She was still around, and they still talked and laughed and worked together. It wasn’t like Flynn hung around them, but Barry suspected that he had no desire to be anywhere that Barry was. On occasion though, Lup would be absent, and Barry would work by himself while he tried to shake off the uncomfortable melancholy that seemed to tighten his chest. Still, he had a job to do, and he wasn’t going to sit around and mope just because Lup had a life.

“Barold, buddy, why the long face?”

At least, he tried not to.

“I’m fine, Magnus.”

Magnus sat down across from him, resting his chin in his hands as he studied him. “You sure, man?”

“Yeah, just taking a break. What are you doing here? Don’t you have work?” he asked, trying to change the subject.

“Yeah, but I’m skipping out. Got someone to cover for me.” Magnus leaned back in his seat. “I’m sort of tired of it,” he added.

“What, work?” Barry asked with a chuckle.

“Nah, this place.”

Well that made two of them. “Why’s that?”

“Everything’s like, so clean here. There’s not a spec of dirt on anyone. It’s so weird.”

That would be something that bothered Magnus, who liked working with his hands. Who didn’t need everything to be so damn pretty and perfect. “That’s fair.”

“Also if some guy looks down his nose at me one more time today I might slug him. Or challenge him to arm wrestle me.”

Barry laughed loudly. “Do you think that would work?”

Magnus put one elbow out in front of him and opened his hand toward Barry. “Do you want to arm wrestle me?”

“No thank you,” Barry said, chuckling nervously. “The only possible outcome would be pretty embarrassing.”

Magnus folded his arms and leaned back in his chair again, looking slightly smug. “Yeah, I think it probably would.”

“It all looks good to me. I checked out the Starblaster pretty thoroughly a couple times now, and we should have no problems taking off in a couple weeks when the Hunger comes.”

“You rock, Cap’n Port!” Lup cheered.

“Oh, well I’m…thank you.” Davenport averted his gaze, looking slightly embarrassed by Lup’s enthusiasm. He cleared his throat. “Anyway, continue to go about your lives for the next few weeks, and try not to do anything...life threatening.”

“Hey, I’ve stayed alive so far!” Merle argued, gesturing to himself for emphasis.

“I wasn’t calling out anyone in particular,” Davenport replied innocently.

“To be fair, Merle,” Lucretia chimed in, “you do have a bad track record.”

“And there’s still a few weeks left, so who knows what could happen,” Magnus chuckled. “Hey, do you need a bodyguard?”

“No, I don’t need a bodyguard,” Merle retorted with a pout.

“Just everyone be careful, please,” Davenport sighed, dismissing them.

Poor Merle; five deaths in eleven cycles was quite a feat. He really should be more careful.

“I think he should take Magnus up on that offer,” Lup interrupted his thoughts, sidling up to him with Taako in tow. “Sounds bad ass.”

“Yeah, it might do him some good,” Barry agreed with a chuckle. Then he sobered. “There has to be some sort of consequence to this whole dying and coming back to life business.”

Taako rested an arm on Lup’s shoulder, leaning into her. “Other than the dying part?”

“Well, I mean…maybe,” Barry said.

“I guess it’s the suffering those of us that are left behind must endure in your absence,” Taako replied dramatically. “Speaking of leaving behind, is there anyone you’ll miss in particular here, Lup?” he asked his sister teasingly.

Barry suddenly wished he was anywhere else but here being a part of this conversation, the familiar unpleasant feeling flaring up in his chest.

Lup shoved him lightly off her shoulder. “No, not really.”

“Not even a certain gentleman, Mr. What’s-His-Handsome-Face?”

She studied her fingernails nonchalantly. “You mean Flynn? Nope. Stopped hanging out with him. He did something I didn’t like.”

Taako’s face quickly morphed from playful to dangerous. “Should I go kill him?”

“Chill out, don’t go wasting a spell. He didn’t do anything, he just said something about somebody I care about.” She made a fist with the hand she was studying. “But I showed him what for.”

“You punched him?” Barry blurted, slightly too loud, suddenly interested.

“A little,” she confessed. “But that’s the thing.” She turned to Barry suddenly, the intensity of her expression demanding his attention. “No one gets to say something bad about the people I care about.”

Taako whistled. “God, what a bad ass, you’re so scary.”

He was clearly joking, but Barry agreed with the sentiment wholeheartedly anyway. He’d thought it since day one, although those feelings had morphed into more of an admiration than anything else. It also helped that he knew one simple truth about his friend.

She’s on my side he thought as Lup smiled at him.

Barry stood outside the Starblaster, watching the sky with the rest of the crew. They’d take off as soon as they spotted the Hunger. It was always anxiety inducing waiting for the dark tendrils to appear, but it made it slightly awkward that they had some doubting onlookers this time around.

“And you just happen to know that this hungry thing is going to come any moment now, is that right?” Delman asked, flanked by a few higher ups of the city.

Davenport sighed. “The Hunger, yes. As we’ve said countless times before, it’ll come. Thankfully, we have the Light and are taking it with us, so it’ll chase us down, but it might cause some problems for you here, so I do urge you to get somewhere safe. You do have time.”

“Doesn’t seem all that necessary.”

“Why are you out here, then?”

“You all look rather ridiculous,” Delman laughed. His friends followed suit.

Barry was alright with the year being up.

“Where are Lup and Taako?” asked Magnus beside him.

That was another cause to his anxiety. “Lup said she was going with Taako to his shop so that ‘he could say goodbye,’” Barry told him. At least it was only a few minutes away from the ship.

“That guy’s not right,” Magnus said.

Hard to argue with that. Barry fell silent and fell back into watching both the sky and the distance for his friends to return.

Thankfully, the latter came first, as he saw both Lup and Taako sprinting towards the ship. Lup slowed as she approached, but Taako ran right by him and through the Starblaster’s door.

He poked his head out. “I’ll be here if anyone needs me!”

Magnus shook his head. “Not right,” he repeated as he turned and headed into the ship himself. Lucretia and Merle followed suit.

Barry turned back around to find Lup standing in front of him now, hands held behind her back.

“Did Taako pay his respects?” he asked.

“Hugged every last one of those gorgeous shirts,” she replied. “He’s keeping that hat though.”

“Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.”

“Me neither. Speaking of keeping, I actually got you something,” she added.

She pulled her hands from behind her back, producing a dark blue piece of folded clothing. “So I saw this suit and thought of you. I mean you wear jeans exclusively and that’s awesome, but maybe one of these days you’ll have something you desperately need a suit for, and I figured you should have one. If you need it. Or it can hang in your closet. Doesn’t matter, I just want you to—”

“Lup,” Barry interrupted quietly, stopping her rambling.

“Yeah?” she asked hesitantly.

“Thank you. It’s great. I’ll definitely find a reason to wear it someday,” he promised, feeling a little choked up for no reason.

She was quiet for a moment, then punched him in the arm, a little harder than normal. “You better. I bought it for you. Well, bought’s a strong word.”

Barry winced as he rubbed his arm. “What do you mean?”

A distant shout caught both of their attention, and they turned to see Flynn running towards them.

“I actually kind of stole it and he may have seen me do it.”

Barry laughed despite himself. “Oh my god. You should probably…”

“Yep, see ya!” She turned and ran back into the ship, carrying the suit.

Barry watched her go, then turned towards the approaching Flynn, who slowed his stride panting heavily. Davenport looked toward Barry with concern, but Barry waved him off, and the captain continued to watch the sky.

“Morning Flynn,” Barry said when the man was in hearing distance.

“Did Lup just go into that hunk of junk with a suit?” the man asked irritably, ignoring the greeting.

“I don’t know, she’s really fast,” he told him, unable to stop the smile that spread onto his face.

Flynn held a hand to his forehead, exasperated. “Whatever, I can’t be bothered with one suit. It wasn’t expensive or nice anyway, not a huge loss.”

“Sure,” Barry replied innocently. “Seemed nice though. You know, from what I saw,” he added when the man gave him a look.

Flynn continued to stare for a moment, saying nothing. Then he shook his head. “I really don’t get it.”

“Get what?”

“You. Her. Have you seen her?”

“Almost every day for eleven years. What’s your point?” Barry asked, a little irritated now.

“My point is that you and her do not make sense.”

Barry sighed, trying to be civil. “Well, it’s been just the seven of us all this time. I sort of doubt we’d be friends in any other life, but I can’t imagine anything else at this point.”

“Friends,” Flynn echoed, smiling disbelievingly.

“Yes, friends!” Barry shot back too loudly, over it. “I don’t understand your confusion.”

“No, I suppose you wouldn’t,” he laughed. “But I think I now understand yours.”

“What does—”

“Time to go, Barry!” Davenport suddenly shouted.

Barry looked down. He hadn’t noticed how the world looked desaturated until now.

“Shit, what the hell is that?” Flynn asked, panicked, looking up at the sky.

“That’s what me and my friends saved your ass from. You’re welcome,” Barry replied. He found he sincerely meant it. “You have a few minutes, so get yourself somewhere safe. Hopefully there won’t be too much damage down here,” he added, backing up.

Flynn turned and ran, as did Delman and the others, and Barry and Davenport did the same, back into the Starblaster. Davenport headed for the wheel.

“I’d say buckle up, but it doesn’t matter that much!” Davenport called back to them. “Just hold on to something!”

Barry grabbed the bar next to the window and closed his eyes, breathing deeply and trusting that their captain would fly them safely out like always.

“Do I need to go back down there and kick his ass?”

Barry opened his eyes to see Lup in front of him. He smiled at her, the mounting fear he felt dissipating a little. She looked actually willing to do it.

“No, I don’t think he deserves that and the Hunger.”

“He’ll be fine,” she said.

“I think so.”

They both fell silent, concentrating on not being thrown around by Davenport’s maneuvers. The anxiety and fear gripped his heart once more, so he turned to Lup again.

“Lup.”

“Yeah?”

He breathed in deeply, steadying himself. “Thanks for the suit.”

#all the time in the world #the adventure zone #taz balance #blupjeans #taz fic #barry bluejeans #lup #barry x lup #lup x barry

6 notes · View notes

bts-is-my-life-as-always · 6 years

Text

Jealous hugs.

Pairing: Taehyung X reader.

Genre: fluff

(Credits to gif owners)

Sooooo an anon called Elf requested this, with all the other members version of hug me and only me, I’m not sure what I would’ve called this, but hopefully I’ve decided once I’ve written this, anyways thanks for reading my stuff ~~~

Taehyung was one of the hottest boys in school, he was also your best friend, you weren’t the prettiest but, boys being boys were still attracted to you, every time a guy would “bother you” V would walk over and pretend like he was your boyfriend, it was nice when you weren’t really interested in the guys, but it was bad when you were, you’d be having semi good and interesting conversations when tae would creep up behind you, and back hug you, while caressing your waists and kissing the side of your cheeks, your face would harden and instantly go red from the close proximity of tae and usually the guys would back away and not say anything to you afterwards.

There was a new student in your class, he had just transferred from the US to korea so he didn’t have any friends, so you wanted to be his friend, you were always so open and kind to everyone.

You spent more and more days with the new kid, his name was kwangsoo he was a month older than you, he loved curry and hated mushrooms, he also was just like you, very sarcastic and more rough around the edge, taehyung noticed how you became more distant towards him, completely airing or forgetting his existence, you didn’t mean to, but you started to hurt his feelings a little.

Everyone knew how close the two of you were, he’d seen you a couple of times in the corridor with the new kid, every time he was irritated with you leaving him for the new kid, saying how he still needed help going around, while tae closed his eyes and just listened to all the rumours going around saying how the new kid and you were dating, he hated every single gossip and glared at whoever was talking about you until they left the room, so when he saw you, once again, with the new kid, walking side by side, laughing your head off about something V wasn’t having it, he walked over towards your locker where you were speaking to kwangsoo, you were slowly packing things that you needed for your homework into your bag,

“Sooo what homework are we doing together again?” You asked kwangsoo still focused on packing,

“How about we finish the phycology and maths second?”

You just nodded and decided to carry your textbooks instead of putting it into your bag, thats when you felt arms around you again, you knew who it was, and the thought of taehyung made you blush like crazy, you gasped slightly, not loud enough for any of the boys to hear but loud enough to make you blush even more,

“I’ve missed you all week, where were you?” Taehyung whispered, but it was loud enough for kwangsoo to hear,

“Oh, tae? I kind of have to go, sorry I’ll call you later, okay?” You looked into his eyes, still distracted by kwangsoo, you let go of Taes grasp way too quickly, everyone around you witnessing what had just happened, usually the other guy would go and leave the two of you at peace, almost everyone could see how tae was crushing on you hard, almost, only that you yourself didn’t know, you got to kwangsoos house and you studied, that’s all you did, and the time had already past by so fast, it was already late, really late, you didn’t want kwangsoo to have to drop you off and then go back home, so you decided to call V.

“Hello? Y/n? What are you doing calling me at 1 in the morning?” He sounded annoyed, you knew you woke him up,

“Umm tae, can you come get me? If not I can just go home by myself”

“What do you mean can I come get you? Where are you? It’s 1 in the morning y/n? Where are you I’m coming”

You told him kwangsoos address, and he arrived no sooner with his friend who was older than him and able to drive, he didn’t look too pleased,

“What are you doing y/n? Look at the time, your not a kid anymore” you pouted slightly, missing your little interactions like these with V.

“I’m sorry, we were just studying and lost track of time”

Tae wanted to believe that that’s all you were doing, but in a home, with a guy alone for hours, his imaginations wouldn’t stop going wild, while taehyung was having a mental battle with his imagination, you were in your own world, glad that your best friend/crush lived next door to you. You had been talking with kwangsoo, the two of you related a lot, you wanted to ask tae out somehow, but Just didn’t know how to, you’d been friends with him for so long, that you didn’t know what to do or say, kwangsoo had dates many people, men and women, and he told you that the best way to know if a guy likes you, is to just ask him out, and see, the worst answer you could get is a no, taes friend dropped the both of you off, the walk up to the two of your apartment was awkward, he instantly went to his door, but you were determined to talk to him today so you clutched onto his sleeves,

“Tae? Can we talk?” You asked, as sweetly as you could make, you knew he couldn’t resist when you acted like this,

“What is it? I’m tired, I don’t have time for this” you knew taehyung for so long, you knew when he was jealous and when he was really angry, this was a mixture of both, knowing exactly what could’ve ran through his mind when you called him and asked him to pick you up, you dragged him inside his home, and made yourself comfortable on his couch,

“are you gonna talk or just make yourself welcome?” He asked irritated

“Let’s talk sitting, I missed your weird ass, come here” you said pushing both your arms forward and folding and unfolding your hands multiple times, and just kept blinking, like his body couldn’t resist, he instantly came over and sat down next to you, without saying another word you hugged him, wrapping your arm around his torso, you didn’t even realise how much you missed him, another advice from kwangsoo was to not seem too needy, and that’s what you’ve been doing all week, but you couldn’t do it anymore, you missed his scent and his touches, as he tried to pry you off, you hugged onto him even more, but as he resisted your embrace more than usual, you looked up from your position, irritated yourself,

“Stop moving, I’m trying to hug you”

“You said let’s talk, so talk without clinging onto me” you furrowed your eyebrows together and said out too loud,

“No! Are you blind, anyone in this world would be able to tell that I’m trying to hide away from your gaze, so I can confess to your dumbass” He listened to you, repeating your words in his head, you stared into his eyes when he was thinking, knowing that he must like you too if his pupils were expanding the double it’s normal self, you leaned into him once more,

“Now will you stop moving and let me hold you, I’ve missed your hugs, now when someone tries to hit on me, you can come over and just tell them I’m taken, by you, right?”

Hopefully that wasn’t too cringe, anyways hope you enjoyed, and love you all, look forward to chimchims

Bye ^~^

#bts #bts rapmon #bts jin #bts suga #bts jhope #bts jimin #bts v #bts jungkook #bts v sceanrio #bts taehyung scenario #bts scenario #bts reaction #bts fluff #kpop reaction #kpop scenario #bts kim taehyung #bts taehyung fluff

136 notes · View notes

hoffkk · 6 years

Text

On the fourth day of Ficmas, hoffkk gave to me...

Four Dancing Elves (A Rucas Fanfic)

*******

Riley was sitting by herself in her parents cafe, lounging on the vintage loveseat and drinking hot chocolate. Checking her phone, she saw it was 4:00 on the dot, the exact time Lucas said he would meet her. He said he had a surprise for her, and Riley couldn't even fathom what it could be. Trying to contain her excitement, she glanced around the cafe in search of her boyfriend. There were some college kids grabbing breakfast and coffee, an elder gentleman drinking tea ad doing the newspaper crossword puzzle, and some women with shopping bags checking out the glass case of baked goods, but there was no Lucas... yet. She hummed a Christmas tune to pass the time then, after a couple of minutes, checked her phone again. IT was now 4:02, and Lucas was nowhere to be seen. Displeased with his tardiness, she frowned then took a sip of her warm beverage. Normally, Lucas running late would be no big thing, but since he was leaving early the next morning for a big family Christmas back in Texas, she wanted to spend as much time with him as possible until then, especially since he wouldn't be back until after the new year. Yes, this holiday break was going to be long and torturous, but Riley tried not to let herself dwell on that or Lucas's lateness. Instead, she tried to distract herself again by texting her other friends to see what they were up to. She texted Maya, Zay, Smackle, and Farkle all in one big group message. A few minutes went by, and there was not a single reply. Riley tried texting them all again, this time individually, only to get the same result. It was now 4:10, and she was officially concerned. Where was everybody?

She was about to text yet again when the bells on the cafe door jingled, signaling the arrival of a customer. Immediately turning her head, she found Lucas in the entryway, grinning brightly. Riley beamed at him and said, "Hey."

"Hey." Lucas repeated, standing there unmoving. "I'm sorry I'm late, I was getting your Christmas present ready, and it took longer than I thought to get everything set up."

"What do you mean?" Riley asked curiously.

"I'll think it'll be easier if I just show you." He decided as his smile widened. "Hit it, guys." He tossed over his shoulder and out the door before making his way over to the seat beside his girlfriend.

Furrowing her brow, she stared at the door and waited to see what happened next. She almost lost it when, Maya, Zay, Smackle, and Farkle all filed inside dressed like elves. They had the complete costumes from the hats and pointy ears down to the tights and whimsical slippers. Before Riley could comment, Zay set down the portable speaker he was holding, placed his cell phone next to it and hit play.

The room instantly filled with an up tempo drumbeat accompanied by jingle bells. After a few beats, Maya called out, "1, 2... 1, 2, 3..."

All of sudden, her four elfish friends began dancing and singing in perfect unison,

"Let's make the whole year Christmas No reason to forget this Feeling we're feelin' now Gotta keep it going all year round Let's keep the sleigh bells ringing We'll keep the whole world singing, Feel so good why stop now? Let's make Christmas the whole year round."

Riley squealed as she clapped happily in delight. She loved this song. It was one of her favorite Christmas jams. She could never remember the name of the artist who sang it though. All she ever remembered was that she looked freakishly like Maya. It really was spooky how much they resembled each other. Not letting that thought distract her, Riley kept watching intently as Maya stepped forward and sang solo,

"I don't care if snow stops falling down Santa's come and gone, yeah he's left town I don't need a Christmas tree, Mistletoe, or red and green All I need is you next to me To make every night Christmas Eve."

As Maya finished the first verse and they all sang the chorus together once more, Riley threaded her fingers in between Lucas's and squeezed tightly. This was her way of silently telling him how much she was enjoying this little performance. As the chorus came to a close, Zay slid forward and showed off his mad dance skills as he executed his own solo.

"All those pretty lights have been put away And old Rudolph is gone on holiday We'll keep that fire burning Though the calendar is turning Why stop at 1, hey, what for? When we can have 364 more!"

Finishing his last note with a Michael Jackson style jump up to tiptoes, the other three joined back in. They did yet another round of the chorus, then Smackle and Farkle came forward together and began doing an adorable partner dance as they sang the next part as their own personal duet.

"I don't need a Christmas tree Mistletoe or red and green All I need is you next to me To make every night Christmas Eve."

Farkle rolled Smackle in toward him and back out with his opposite arm, so that they were apart and striking a fun pose on the last note. It was the cutest thing Riley had ever seen, the whole routine was, especially when they all joined together for the final chorus of the song and began a kick line. She couldn't help but giggle at that as their voices rang out,

"Let's make the whole year Christmas No reason to forget this Feeling were feelin' now, Gotta keep it going all year round Let's keep the sleigh bells ringing We'll keep the whole world singing Feel so good why stop now? Let's make Christmas the whole year Make Christmas the whole year Let's make Christmas the whole year round Let's make Christmas the whole year round!"

The kick line faded into partner dancing for the rest of the song. At the end, the boys got down on one knee as the girls held their hand and twirled around them in a small circle. On the very last note of the very last line, the girls sat down on their laps, crossed their legs, put one arm around their neck and extended the other up in the air with fingers spread out in a jazz hand motion. The boys extended their free arm the same way but downward. Once the music stopped, Riley stood up and began to clap. Much to her friends' appreciation, so did the rest of the cafe patrons.

"You guys, that was awesome." Riley said truthfully. It really was amazing, and the fact that Lucas planned it all and put it together just for her, well, that just made it completely perfect. He was definitely the best boyfriend ever in the history of boyfriends.

"Thanks, Riles." Maya smiled.

"Yeah, it was nothing." Zay agreed.

"When Lucas told us about his gift idea and asked for our help, we couldn't say no." Farkle told her.

"I also couldn't say no to this sexy elf outfit." Smackle chimed in, making them all chuckle. When she caught Lucas smiling at her, she immediately spat, "Stop hitting on me!"

Everyone laughed a little more, then Zay said, "All right, I don't know about y'all, but this hot chocolate needs some hot chocolate."

"Libations sound good to us." Farkle said as Smackle nodded in agreement.

"Okay then," Maya chimed in. "Why don't we give these two crazy kids a minute alone and see what my mom's got cooked up behind the counter."

Riley looked to Lucas and smiled. He smiled back sheepishly and said, "So, you really liked it? It wasn't too much?"

"It was wonderful." She affirmed. "I can't believe you went to all that trouble."

"Well, Riley, being with you is like having Christmas all year round, and I really wanted you to that. I wanted you to know just how special you are to me." Lucas explained as he retrieved a neatly wrapped gift box from his letterman jacket pocket. He got quiet as he handed it to her and watched her open it.

Riley tore the reindeer wrapping paper off to reveal a red velvet box. She tossed the paper on the coffee table and studied the box a moment before opening it. Slowly, Riley lifted the lid to reveal the prettiest sterling silver necklace. It had a charm at the end that sparkled. It was a heart intertwined with an infinity symbol. It was beautiful.

Riley was speechless as she stared at the thoughtful gift, so Lucas took advantage of silence and told her, "You truly are a gift, Riley. Every. Single. Day."

Meeting his eyes, she beamed up at him for a moment before throwing her arms around him and pulling him close. Pulling back ever so slightly, she whispered in his ear and said for the first time ever, "I love you, Lucas."

Pulling back quickly, Lucas looked at her with eyes that sparkled with a mix of adoration and excitement, "What did you just say?"

Smirking, she replied, "I know were only seniors in high school, but I know what I feel. You are the best person I know--"

"Hey!" Maya yelled from the coffee counter, obviously eavesdropping.

"Besides Maya." Riley amended. When Maya nodded her approval, she continued, "Anyway, as I was saying, you are one of the best people I know. You make me feel happy and special and are always there for me. The truth is, if I tried to dream up the perfect guy, he wouldn't even come close to you. Tonight, you really proved that, just like you do every day... and I love you for it. I love you, Lucas Friar."

As he stood their grinning from ear to ear with Riley in his arms, there was only one thing to say.

"I love you too, Riley Matthews." He replied, the words sounding so natural as they rolled off his tongue. Unable to stop himself, (not that he wanted to) he leaned forward and kiss her deeply. After a moment, he pulled back, leaned his forehead against hers and whispered, "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas." She repeated cheerfully then kissed him again.

Lucas gratefully accepted and, as he lovingly embraced his girlfriend, he couldn't help but think that even though Riley is the one walking home with a gift box, he is the one who got the best Christmas present ever.

#rucas #girl meets world #riley x lucas #ficmas #four dancing elves #riley matthews #lucas friar #gmw

25 notes · View notes

scurvgirl · 7 years

Text

Rethsaam

Qunlat - We All Protect

More Seeker of Rebellion! (I said I wasn’t going to write much but I spent the day whacked out on meds so formal writing didn’t happen, wooo)

Sylmae, Nimronyn, Daern’thal, and Henne’thel belong to @justanartsysideblog

Glory belongs to @feynites

Nimronyn takes them even farther away, but she is at least now going at a pace that doesn’t absolutely exhaust her. The travel is like what it was - up in the clouds and dreaming. Like before, it clears Ash’s head and lifts her spirits. Up here, it feels like nothing can touch her. It’s not the kind of rush her adoptive mothers want her to feel, but it helps to reorient herself.

She shifts and flies beside Nim for a little while, dipping into the spaces around her antlers. She needs more practice shifting anyways, why not practice now? She billows back to the aravel eventually, tired but a good tired, the kind of tired that lets her sleep without fuss. Her memories are always happier up here. Instead of remembering death and destruction, Ash remembers Nanae’s preferred perfume when they were in Val Rayoux, or how Mama loved to collect books. She remembers a trip to Val Rayoux where she got to wear the prettiest dress she had ever seen, silk spun so fine it draped like water over her.

When she wakes, she finds they have landed in a nice glen, surrounded by tall, old growth trees. The area strikes her as oddly familiar, she thinks…there are wyverns around here? But in the future, and the trees…they were bigger. But still, wyverns are creatures of habit and if they were there in the future, it is very possible they could be around now. She informs the scouts and more than a few of them seem a little too excited by the idea.

“Don’t go purposefully looking for them now,” she warns playfully.

“Would we do that?” Etiras asks, feigning innocence. Ash rolls her eyes and wishes them to be safe while scouting. She isn’t exactly one to stop someone from bending the rules, so if they happen upon a wyvern, at least they’ll be prepared.

The rest of the day is comprised of the typical work needed to secure the clan after travel. Wards need to be put up, aravels need to be properly secured, food needs to be cooked, and specialty workshops need to be set up. Children also need to be corralled and watched, though more…responsible types are trusted with that task than Ash. And since Daern’thal has worked himself into sickness, she becomes the main person responsible for setting up the wards.

It is cooler in this region, farther south and east than where they had been, and the coldness presses particularly uncomfortably against Ash. She shrouds herself in warm magic and furs. Her hair is loose today, partially for warmth, and it spills out from the hood she’s wearing.

Setting up wards is always an odd thing. It makes her think of her Nanae and Uthvir a lot, and in the past it’s graced her with a lingering melancholy. But today is different. She thinks of them and their memories seem to twine in with the wards, lighting in particularly bright displays of activity. They are all connected to her, ready to alert and to deter depending on the nature of the intruder. Animals are tricky creatures sometimes, particularly since they can be in the service of rival clans or the empire, but for the most part, the wards are set up to warn of specific elf-like energy intruders.

She is careful in how she spills her blood, creating a web of blood magic wards. She layers the wards – the outer layer is to simply inform of those wandering closer, while the second is to start discouraging, and the third are more akin to magical traps than just wards.

Ash walks the perimeter of the camp multiple times, checking to make sure that all wards and safety precautions are in place. By the time she is done, the sun is beginning to set, creating soft yet beautiful shadows through the trees. She returns to camp, heading straight to the fire. Blood magic always leaves her feeling cold, combine that with the chill in the air and Ash is too cold for comfort.

Ram soup is for dinner and helps, heating her from the inside out. She leans against Nimronyn while she eats, curling up and basking in her memae’s warmth. By the end of dinner, Ash is warm again, and her magic feels replenished, even after being so utilized during the day.

The hunters return from their hunting activities, a wyvern unabashedly being carried by three of them. Etiras shrugs at her while grabbing a bowl of soup. Well, at least now they have some valuable scales and bone for crafting.

While the camp is winding down for the night, she can’t help but notice Daern’thal’s continued absence. She frowns, he should have been with the rest of them for dinner, but he’s remained in his aravel for the entire day.

Ashokara rises and grabs another bowl of soup before heading into her friend’s aravel. It is dark, and the warming runes need more energy to be activated again. She waves a hand and they all ignite, slowly warming the aravel. She lights the candles and enchanted stones as well, bathing the aravel is soft light. Daern’thal’s prone figure wriggles in his hammock and he pokes his head out from the cocoon of his blankets.

“I brought you soup,” she says, stepping towards him.

Reverie pops its head out from underneath the covers, in its bird form.

“Thank you.”

Daern’thal slowly sits up, his hair clearly trying to free itself in a frizzy array from his braids. He keeps the blankets wrapped around him even as he shifts to the upright position. Two hand peek out from the blankets and take the bowl and spoon. She climbs up behind him and takes his hair gently in hand, slowly untangling it with a comb.

He eats and she helps him in silence. Their words after the battle…had not been nice, nor easy. He has seen her memories, she has let him…know, to understand, and as much as he understands, he has not lived what she has lived. The pain….

All he sees are her actions, and how the clan is affected by them. She knows that she has acted recklessly. And he knows that she couldn’t just stand there and let things happen, but he also feels wronged by her somehow.

“The man who destroyed my world did not think the people of my world were people. He called my people brutes, and only changed his mind when my mother showed him just how compassionate and good we are. He…was incapable of seeing people as people until it was too late, until he was too set in his ways to stop himself from destroying anything,” she says softly. Daern’thal stills and Reverie hops up onto his shoulder.

“I tell you this because I am not like him. I have always seen you as people, just as bright, just as important as the people from my world. My loss…it can never be fully repaired, but that does not mean I am unable to love you or the clan. But it does make me protective. I am sorry to have hurt you, but please do not ever insinuate that I do any of this because I do not love you,” she tells him, letting his hair fall softly down his back.

Reverie stares at her and she wonders if she said more than she should have. She doesn’t want to fight with him, but she doesn’t want to leave this…whatever it is open.

“I’m sorry,” Reverie says, so softly she almost doesn’t hear. A tense breath leaves her and she leans her forehead against the back of his head.

“Thank you.”

They don’t say anything for the rest of the evening. She helps keep him warm after the soup, curling up with him on a pile of blankets and pillows, lending her natural heat to help his recovery. Reverie sneaks into the pile, vibrating happily.

She falls asleep with him, curled up and warm.

After that night, the tension of the battle seems to lessen. And soon, days turn into weeks, which then turn into months. She trains with Sylmae almost daily, honing her abilities, becoming deadlier and stronger.

Sometimes she’ll catch herself in a mirror and hardly recognize herself. She…looks like her mama. She has her nose, and her cheeks. Mama was not a thin woman, she was made of soft curves and strong muscle, and while Ash is smaller, leaner, her body follows very similar lines to her mother, she thinks. Her shoulders are stronger now, able to carry more, not just her sorrow and memories. Ash can see her mama when she looks at herself, but it doesn’t make her sad. Her curls are looser but just as white, a mane of hair that floats around her face and horns, down her back. She is strong like her mama, she is beautiful, and compassionate. Or she at least tries to be.

She lets her memories linger closer to her. It hurts at first, everything seems to remind her of loss, but slowly it begins to shift. She sees things her loved ones would have loved, and she loves those things more for it. She sees wrong as spirits drift into the camps, whispering of the empire’s expansions, and she feels impassioned to right them. Her memories make her strong and she feels closer to herself than she has in the entire time she’s been here.

The months stretch into a year, and Nimronyn takes them deep into a mountain range. Winter holds the region in a cold, dead grip, blanketing the region in a thick blanket of snow. Ash melts snow wherever she goes, blazing trails forward…but also making them rather conspicuous.

The clan remains bundled up and close together, particularly around Nimronyn’s reptilian-like body. Ash sends friendly flames over her memae’s body every now and then, keeping her warm. Sylmae is less delicate and throws several large blankets over the dragon. But it helps. Ash knows that these far reaching places are safer, but they tax Nimronyn too much.

But she also knows not to press the issue.

We need allies. We need safe harbor. We can’t run forever. Every day the empire expands, taking more clans, killing more keepers. Daern’thal tells her of more whispers of the madness growing making Ash grow increasingly worried. There were no tales of this in the future, something so old, people forgot.

There is nothing concrete to blame the madness on, but if Ash had to bet, she’d bet it is the Empire. It the type of sinister thing she could see Mythal doing – the bitch.

What is most troubling, however, is that every now and then there are whispers in the clan that maybe the empire isn’t so bad. Their vision is an attractive one, and it beats constantly running. Ash reminds them that the empire destroys themselves eventually, enslaves definitely, and anyways, after what happened in the valley – any of them will be killed on sight…or worse. They are welcome to leave, but they should know the truth of the empire, to not believe its beguiling lies.

Despite the several feet of snow and freezing conditions, Sylmae takes Ash to the side and sets to train her.

“Conditions will not always favor you!” Sylmae says as they begin.

“Certainly not if we keep running to the mountains,” Ash snipes back, parrying her mother’s strike.

“It is futile to curb your tongue.”

“It is!” She lunges and Sylmae bats her away easily. As strong as Ash has gotten, as good as she has become with combat, she still can’t quite beat Sylmae. Always one step behind.

But then again, Ash does not use her fire in this training.

Nim trains her fire, and Daern’thal improves her defensive magicks.

“Your opinions are no always correct,” Sylmae continues.

“No one’s opinions are always correct – not even yours or Memae’s,” Ash counters, rolling away, only to drop into a particularly deep snow drift. The word is not called though, spar is still in session. Sylmae is dashing after her and in a spur of the moment decision, Ash takes a deep breath and lets a wave of heat seep from her, quickly melting all the snow around her and Sylmae.

Her mamae wobbles on the suddenly new muddy ground. Well, she used to not use her fire in these sessions. The ground is still unstable but at least it’s not snow, and Ash takes advantage of Sylmae’s very slight wobble to dash forward. Their training sticks clash as Ash angles herself low. Sylmae is still significantly taller than Ash, and she’s beginning to think she’s taller than even Mama, but that just means she has a longer way to fall.

Ash is not the quickest, nor the strongest, but she strives to be clever. She does not relent, further destabilizing Sylmae’s base. She could maybe win this won, she could –

A ward goes off in her head and she gasps, suddenly seeing the intruders on the outer ring of wards traipsing through the snow.

When her vision clears, she is on her back with Sylmae standing above her.

“What was that?”

“Intruders,” Ash hisses, rolling to her feet quickly. Seriousness settles over Sylmae as she follows Ash back into the camp, peppering her with questions.

“How many? What were their armaments? Describe them –

“I don’t think they’re part of the empire, they looked more like a clan – but I didn’t see a Keeper.” She tries to hold the image in her head, seeing…an aravel, harts, and young elves that could very well be teenagers.

Sylmae’s face hardens. They’ve run into hostile clans before, though normally they have Keepers. A Keeper-less clan is woefully at risk, that is…if the Keeper isn’t disguised somehow.

Still, they alert the clan, rearranging the aravels into a defensive position and gathering warriors and hunters. Daern’thal taps into the wards and Dreaming, scouting where he can to see if he can learn anything about these elves.

Ash armors and arms herself, slowly working on her breathing exercises to let her magic begin to circulate freely inside of her. Fire requires a spark and a steady supply of fuel, magical fire requires the same, with slight variation. Her will is the spark, her breath and the magical pathways in her body are the fuel. She grabs her spear, two daggers, and several knives. She doesn’t think this clan will pose that much of a threat, but…safer than sorry.

Armed and ready, she joins her mothers at the forefront.

Another ward breaks and Ash is given another glimpse. The clan she sees is not advancing like an army, and she does not know if they can sense they are breaking wards. Exhaustion is written across their faces.

We need to know our enemies, yes, but we also need to know how to spot an ally, Mama’s voice drifts through her mind, a lingering memory. She was speaking to Cullen, something about how he was suspicious of some new mage enclave Mama wanted to bring into the fold. There was concern that they were Venatori agents – they had in fact been young mages who had run from the Circle before the rebellion. Mama had been right.

“I think…this is not a fight,” she says tentatively.

“I agree,” Reverie chirps up. It sits on Daern’thal’s shoulder, his eyes still closed as he searches through the Dreaming.

“They carry weariness with them, not malice,” it continues. Mamae and Memae share looks, Memae’s large eyes blinking slowly as she returns her gaze to the forest around them.

“They can still pose a threat,” Mamae says.

“Yes, but maybe…a friendly initial approach is best?” Ash suggests.

Another ward breaks. The sounds of a moving clan reach them, growing from soft whispers and whirring to actual speech and the plodding of harts, the various plunks and wheezing from moving aravels.

“Mamae? Memae?” Ash asks, wanting to see if they will at least consider her idea.

“Yes, little light, we’ll try. We do not fight if it’s not necessary,” Nim finally answers and Ash relaxes. If she is wrong, they can chew her out – but something tells her she’s not.

The other clan’s scouts are the first to pass through the trees. They are nearly hidden, but the wards chitter with activity.

“Stay there,” Nimronyn commands. The scouts freeze against the trees and soon the rest of the clan follows them.

They halt immediately as soon as they spy Ash’s clan. They watch each other, eyes flitting from one person to the next, gaging the strength of who they’re up against. The people of the other clan’s faces fall as they realize their disadvantage.

The stillness is broken by a small woman striding quickly to the front of the stopped clan. There is a fierceness to her that Ash recognizes, as is the sorrow that seems to fill the space around her. This is a grieving woman, her eyes are hard and she is ready to fight if need be. She has lost much, but she has not lost everything.

A warrior next to Ash grips his axe tighter and Ash reaches out, placing her hand on the haft. Nimronyn puffs up and a taste of her magic suffuses the area.

“There is already a clan here, you have broken many of our wards…what brings you so close?” She asks, her tone as strong as it is questioning. The woman in question raises her chin in defiance, her own magic expanding in the space and Ash suddenly realizes that this must be their Keeper.

“You are Nimronyn, yes?”

Memae lets out a low growl but nods.

“I am Henne’thel. My father spoke of you, he said you were a good Keeper. You are not like the Keeper that attacked my clan and killed him and my mother.”

Her clan does not gasp as much as the emotions in the clearing suddenly turn to shock then to pity then to sorrow. The death of a Keeper…once a rare event has become entirely too common, with the rise of the empire and the increasing boldness in warring clans that have tyrannical Keepers more bent on fighting and death than they are on leading.

“I am sorry for your loss, Henne’thel. I knew of your father as well, he was a good Keeper.”

“I am our Keeper now – I slew the last Keeper that threatened us.”

“As is your right. We do not wish any unnecessary antagonism if you do not,” Nimronyn says diplomatically.

The tension in the grove eases considerably. Ash watches as the other clan’s members relax, tension rolling off of their shoulders and their faces.

“No, we do not wish any unnecessary fighting. We will be on our way if it eases you,” Henne’thel says. Before Ash can think better of it, she steps forward and bends her head towards her memae.

“Perhaps, Keeper, we could invite them to break bread with us. Winters are coldest weathered alone,” she says, hoping the double meaning of her words come across. Memae huffs at her briefly, pausing before turning back to Henne’thel.

“My daughter speaks the truth, you are welcome to share our fire if you promise to keep your clan on their best behavior.”

Henne’thel inclines her head in gratitude, first towards Nimronyn, then towards Ash.

“Your generosity and hospitality is greatly appreciated. I will confer with my clan and give you an answer.”

“Very well. Ashokara, since you seem so invested in this, you may wait for their answer. You as well Daern’thal, keep her safe.”

Ah, she will be reprimanded lightly later then. Fine, she can handle that, because dammit she was right. Daern’thal looks slightly put out as the rest of their clan files back to their camp. Reverie scuttles up to the top of her friend’s head, staring at Henne’thel.

“I agree with you,” it chirps and she smiles at her friend.

“Thank you, Nimronyn and Sylmae may…not be so understanding of it later, though.”

“They’ll see reason, they always do. It’s not like you barreled head first into an army this time.”

“It was a raiding party, excuse you, and everything turned out fine. And this is better than fine. Friends are always good,” Ash says.

“I’m glad you feel that way,” Henne’thel says from behind her. Ash turns in surprise, looking down, very far down, at the woman before her.

“I do. I am glad we could avoid any fighting; you and your clan have been through enough.”

Henne’thel frowns at that but she does not press the issue as she returns to her people. She can guess what she seems like to Henne’thel, unknowing of the pain she is going through right now. But maybe…and it’s a big maybe, she will get the chance to understand.

When Ash turns back to Daern’thal he is flushed, and it’s not just from the weather. Ash leans back, raising a knowing brow at him. He shrugs, opting to remain silent. Well, then, perhaps it’s not as big of a ‘maybe’ after all.

Henne’thel confers with her people for at least an hour. In that hour, Ash and Daern’thal communicate mostly in sign, keeping quiet for privacy, for themselves and for the clan heatedly discussing whether or not to accept their offer. She can understand why they wouldn’t – unknown, could be a trap, inviting misfortune. She doubts saying it’s not a trap will assuage any concerns, so she lets them have their debate in peace.

Daern’thal seems preoccupied with how apparently pretty Henne’thel is. She is indeed lovely, Ash can see that, but Daern’thal seems very quickly taken with her.

I should have let you invite her to our fire. Ash teases.

I do not court the ire of the Keeper as easily as you do, He retorts, sufficiently not denying anything. She chuckles.

Everyone seems to forget what my name means.

How exactly did your mother know you would be so annoyingly defiant? He teases and she chuckles.

Lucky guess.

And so it goes for an hour, quip after quip until Henne’thel reappears, looking pleased with herself.

“We accept your invitation, as long as you sit with us.”

Oooh, she’s to be insurance, interesting.

“As long as Daern’thal can sit with us too, then, he’s delightful company.” She grins and Daern’thal almost blushes.

Henne’thel seems unfazed by it however as she nods and returns to her people. After she gathers them, they all head towards the camp. Ash manipulates the wards accordingly, allowing them safe passage. The aravels are still positioned defensively when they arrive and a truce must be reached – weapons are to be confined to specific aravels to help prevent fighting. Both clans consent to it and slowly but surely, Henne’thel’s clan settles down around the large fire Ash’s clan has going.

Ash and Daern’thal are kept as the insurance, but she doesn’t mind. She knows that her clan will not attack, and she is happy to foster diplomacy. Henne’thel’s people do not talk to her much at all however, they keep to themselves and while they are all sharing the fire, the clans remain largely separated into their groups. The only exception to this are the children.

As soon as the situation is deemed safe enough, the children are allowed out of the aravels and allowed to romp. They have no issues with making new friends from a different clan, they see a fellow child and see a potential friend, not a potential threat.

Henne’thel and Nimronyn sit together, discussing Keeper things, Ash imagines. This awkward situation remains until supper, where the hunters from both clans convene and begin to cook the game they had caught during the day. Henne’thel takes a seat next to Nimronyn, while Ash and Daern’thal sit with the hunters from Henne’thel’s clan.

The fire begins to die when a wind billows through the trees. Reflexively, Ash takes control of the fire, turning it a brilliant blue as it waves in place while the wind poses a threat. When the wind shifts, she relinquishes it and settles back in. Henne’thel’s clan is watching her closely.

“I heard a very interesting rumor,” Henne’thel says carefully.

“And what is this rumor?” Nimronyn asks.

“There was a battle in a valley far from here, between the rising empire elves and a clan.”

Ash tenses but Nimronyn seems calm.

“Not such an uncommon occurrence in such times.”

“Hm, true, but it is uncommon when the clan wins.” Henne’thel’s gaze shifts to Ash.

“The rumors spoke of a great blue fire engulfing even the mightiest of the warriors. They call the woman responsible for the slaughter Asha’thylgar.”

“The woman of blue fire? What a descriptive name,” Nimronyn ventures, “and potentially misleading – blue fire is not as uncommon as some think.”

“True…but the rumor spoke of the woman who as the daughter of a Keeper,” Henne’thel says and finally Nimronyn shifts her tone.

“I do not appreciate where you are going with this.”

“I mean no disrespect or harm. I am…impressed, very few who tangle with this so-called empire come out of it alive – and you did more than just survive.”

Ash resists smiling and instead continues to eat her food. Ash’s clan seems unnerved from the conversation, they’re shifting in their seats, looking to one another. Sylmae levels her gaze at Ash while Henne’thel and Nymronyn remain locked into whatever stand-off they’re in.

“The empire is hunting you, Asha’thylgar has a sizeable bounty on her head for what she did to Falon’din, it seems reasonable to warn you.”

“How exactly did you come across this information?” Nimronyn demands. They already know about the bounty and the hunting parties, it’s partly why they’re still on the move.

“How everyone does, gossip-y spirits, including an actual Gossip spirit. We have no interest in collecting that bounty, they’d probably just steal us into their empire anyways.”

“Then why bring it up?” Nimronyn asks.

Henne’thel pauses and her eyes go over Ash, “I wanted to know if it was true. I know what the empire can do, I doubted such rumors that a clan escaped. The tale made it sound…fantastical.”

“Feats that are not believed are often thought of that way,” Ash says softly. It’s how folktales and legends get started, there’s almost always a grain of truth, but time distorts everything – especially stories.

“And do you have the truth of this feat?” Henne’thel asks.

“The truth is subject to perspective,” Nimronyn says, “perhaps that is why your gossiping spirits create such a fantastical story – it’s their truth.”

“Then I ask for your truth,” Henne’thel says, not backing down from this. Eyes flit to Ash, expecting her to tell the tale. She nibbles on her lip and shrugs.

“A raiding party entered the valley where we were camped. I was tasked with leading the clan away from the fighting while my Keeper and the clan’s warriors engaged with the raiding party. I couldn’t bear to watch my mothers die so I entered the fighting myself – I have always had a talent for fire, I used it.”

Dark emotion falls over Henne’thel and she nods, “I know that feeling, you are lucky that you did not lose them.” A bitter smile crosses Ash’s face – she doesn’t know, she tells herself. But she nods her head in thanks.

“Lucky indeed.” It feels like a lie. It wasn’t luck, it was determination and action, to prevent from history repeating itself. Or beginning so to speak. She knows what Henne’thel is feeling right now – anger, grief, jealousy. Ash’s adoptive mothers are alive while Henne’thel’s parents are dead – through no fault of her own.

“I am heartened to hear that the tale is true, it is good to know that not all clans are doomed to suffer Keeper-less fates.”

“And we heartened to know that your clan survived a rival’s attack. How did you manage that?” Ash asks.

“I took the form of a Keeper and assumed my role.”

She is more powerful than she seems, then, good. Allies should be strong. The rest of the dinner is filled with polite, if tense, conversation. But over time, and as the wines and spirits are passed around the fire, the tension lessens and the two clans ease into a more companionable existence.

The next few days are a flurry of activity. Food is a little thin, Ash’s clan was not expecting to be hosting with another clan. But Henne’thel’s hunters are more than happy to assist Nim’s hunters in acquiring food. Children play together, Nim and Henne’thel are engaged in talks the entire week, friendships are made, and by the end of the week, an alliance has formed.

Ash resists the urge to gloat but she does settle for a small, “I was right,” directed at Sylmae who humbles her in training again for it. Worth it, though. One of the best, and unexpected, results is that Daern’thal seems absolutely taken with Henne’thel. Reverie once whispers to Ash that Daern’thal finds Henne’thel pretty, beautiful even.

While there seems to be a lead up into a courtship between Henne’thel and Daern’thal, and the alliance is strong, the two clan go their separate ways in traveling. They set up the routes for communication in the Dreaming, giving Daern’thal even more power to contact his lady love. It’s cute, and it’s a good reminder than even in dark times there are always these little bits of brightness that shine through.

Spring arrives in the mountains in a soggy manner, drenching the area in rain – as if the melting snow wasn’t enough. Aravels get stuck and travel becomes slow as they avoid flying due to the near constant inclement weather.

They are camped out on a small mountain, when a ward goes off. Like it’s supposed to work, Ash catches a glimpse of what broke the ward – but she doesn’t see anything other than the surrounding foliage, maybe a few animals, but nothing that would break a ward. She frowns. Wards do not just spontaneously break.

She waits several minutes but no other wards break. She alerts the clan to the ward breaking and they agree it should be examined. Several groups are sent out to examine the perimeter while Ash and Etiras leave to examine the ward, armed just in case. They travel quietly through the woods to the broken ward. Ash’s magic lingers in the area, not just activated but blown apart. This was no accident.

She draws her spear and slowly turns, scanning the area. Etiras draws his bow, looking for anything, anyone, who could have blown the enchantment.

Ash looks up too late. A heavy person drops down from the trees, landing firmly on top of her. She falls to the ground with a harrumph, but rolls away quickly. More drop down from the trees and she hears the snaps of a bow as Etiras begins to fight back. Her spear was thrown when the elf landed on her, so she grabs the dagger in her belt and lashes out with that.

The assassin evades her easily and advances quickly. She rolls back to her feet just as the assassin lunges. She moves just as Sylmae taught her, and she lashes out with her fire – but it is raining, and the ground is sopping. Her fire only does so much, only burns so much before it is turned to steam. More steam fills the air as her fire collides with it, thickening the air, making it difficult to breathe.

But the assassins were just warming up it seems. A cloud of magic seeps into the air, sending what feels like knives and shards of glass into her skin. Her arms are soon covered in lacerations, her face, legs. She hears Etiras scream and she realizes that they’ve been outmatched.

It’s a quick decision, but it should work. It’s called a detonation glyph, she normally doesn’t use them because their devastation is too dangerous – too much margin of error. But they are far from camp and the sound of the blast will alert the rest of the clan. She blasts her fire into the nearest assassin. Their barrier takes the majority of the blast but they are left at least stunned enough to grant her the three seconds to whisper the spell into the ground.

The time starts now.

She manipulates the heat of the air to allow her to see Etiras. Wasting no time, Ash grabs him and runs. Then jumps down a ledge. She sends them both into a tucked in roll, doing the best to protect themselves even as they roll down the scraggly side of the ledge and into the brush.

The ward goes off in a brilliant blue explosion, rocking the earth and air. Debris flies down and Ash curls in on herself, protecting her head and neck.

When the air grows calm, she gathers the will to peak out from her position.

“E-Etiras?” She calls softly. A low groan answers her and she pulls herself to her feet. Damn assassins, probably looking to get a bounty on her like Henne’thel had said. Her body is bleeding and hurt, but she can move, keep moving, keep going.

Ash moves to Etiras, who is in a much worse shape. His foot is bent at an unnatural angle and he is already covered in purple and blue marks, bleeding internally as well as from the cuts up and down his arms, his face…

She has never been one for healing. It is not a skill that comes naturally to her, but she knows a thing or two.

“Etiras.”

“Ow.” He can’t move, the pain is too much, it infuses all of the emotion around him. But he’s alive, and that’s all that matters as far she’s concerned. With the utmost care, she reaches down and gently lifts him. He cries out in pain, but this has to happen. It gets worse before it gets better, she remembers that is part of healing.

The foot needs to be set, there’s no way around it, and then she can begin healing. There is a spell for numbing pain, she just need to remember it.

She attempts a spell then checks for numbness, but it doesn’t work. She tries again, but it is on the third try that she manages the right incantation. Etiras goes numb, all pain and some emotion fading from him.

Alright, step one done. She can do this, she may not have taken to healing, but she did train. She did her time with the healers, and she recalls some from her first life, even without magic, it’s possible. She thinks of the surgeon in Skyhold’s infirmary, working to heal the soldiers, and she didn’t even have magic.

If she can do it, so can Ashokara.

She takes gentle hold of his foot and leg and recalls seeing the Surgeon set a bone like this. Know the body and how it connects and you can take it apart…and put it together again.

She jerks. The bones crunch sickening but the foot is in the position it is supposed to be in. She tears off her shirt and wraps the torn pieces around the foot, then wraps two sturdy sticks to his leg, stabilizing it. Then she casts the few healing spells she knows.

The cuts on his arms mend, and some of the bruising eases off. His breathing evens out and she runs a hand over his hair.

“I’m going to get us back.”

“That was some fucked up shit, Ash.”

“I know, I’m going to pick you up now.” She takes one of his arms and helps him into a sitting position, then moves the arm to fall over her shoulders. She adjusts herself so that when she stands, he is slung over both shoulders, foot and ankle untouched. He grunts but makes no protest as she begins to walk towards what she hopes will let her back up to the clan.

She needs to keep moving, there’s no telling if there are more assassins, waiting to strike. Sylmae and the rest are good at tracking so if they need to find her, they will. Etiras is heavy, but not so much that she will let him attempt walking.

Ash wanders down to the river the scouts had found before. Hypothetically she should be able to wander up-stream and to a crossing point where she can then get to the desired elevation where the clan is. And water sounds very nice right about now.

The going is slow, but she eventually makes it to where the trees end and the riverbed beings, dipping in low. She stops immediately, frozen to the spot as she sees it. She has many experiences with spirits, small and large alike, some bright some clinging to shadows, but none have ever shone so brightly, floated so exquisitely as the one before. It large and golden, but not like the ore but as if it were a second sun on earth, light spilling so easily from it as it dangles in the air above the river.

It turns towards her and her heart stutters. She falls to her knees and Etiras grunts, but falls silent of any protests as he looks up from her shoulder and sees the spirit.

It blinks curiously at her as it floats towards her. An arm extends down to her, silent but overwhelming as it touches her cheek. It is warm and comforting despite everything and she leans into it, wanting it to remain just for longer. It is almost familiar, this closeness, and it fills with unfathomable sorrow to have it be gone.

“You are lost,” it whispers, but it is an echoing thing, as if it were a thousand whispers coming from multiple beings rather than just one. She nods in confirmation.

“We are separated from our clan, have you seen them?” Etiras asks. The spirit turns to him and nods.

“Up on the ridge, to the east. But that is not what I meant.”

Ash blinks in surprise and struggles to find a response.

“I am where I can only be,” she finally says and the spirit nods.

“As we all are.”

Etiras lifts his head slowly and takes a breath, “You are Glory.”

“I am.”

Glory. A very suiting aspect for this spirit, overwhelming and humbling and incredible all at once. Grand and shining, something everyone wants, and so few get, fewer that deserve it.

“Thank you for helping us,” he whispers. Several of its wings beat, light shines from them in varying lengths.

“I will accompany you to the path, you should find your way back from there,” Glory says and begins to…float up the river. She follows it, moving as quickly as she can. As Glory moves, the world seems to stretch towards them, as if nothing can get enough of them. Even Etiras seems to lean as much as he can towards them.

But a coldness lingers in Ash that she can’t explain. It is beautiful and great and incredible, but it also brings a heaviness to her memories that she has not felt in a long time.

Glory leads them to the path. Ash was right, it wasn’t far from the river at all, and she can hear Sylmae and the others in the distance calling for her. Before she heads towards them, she turns to Glory and bows her head in thanks.

“Thank you. And if you will accept advice – stay far away from the Empire, all they do is destroy and corrupt things.”

“Your concern is kind. I will remember it,” it tells her. She nods and Etiras gives his own thanks as Glory recedes back into the Dreaming.

Etiras is heavy upon her shoulders, as are her memories, pressing incessantly against her skull. But she sojourns forth towards the sound of her clan, her people. The past weighs her down, but her legs are strong.

She takes a deep breath and calls for Sylmae, directing them all to her. They are there in a flash, taking Etiras from her and whisking him away to the clan’s healers. Sylmae pulls Ash in for a tight hug, only to release her quickly once she realizes how cut up Ash is.

Their time of running from the Empire is coming to an end, and much sooner than she had expected.

#my writing #seeker of rebellion #ashokara #daern'thal #sylmae #nimronyn #henne'thel #glory #fic #i know that daern'thal is keeping them safe from assassins but i figured that it was reasonable that at least a few get lucky #and get through #no lasting damage though #but look! henne'thel #i hope i wrote her right #same goes for glory #they give me a strong ancient/old school angel vibe #absolutely stunning but also terrifying in their own way #completely overwhelming

13 notes · View notes